Gadgets for the Old and Disabled

I have a question: Why don’t any of the companies that make cell phones, CD players, or any other “gadgets” consider the needs of the elderly and disabled? My father just turned 80 and he’s a jazz fanatic (that is jazz as in real jazz: Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, and so on). I figured it was about time he had a portable CD player so he could listen whenever he wants to and so the hunt was on … Why not an iPod you might ask? That has a reasonably large and simple interface. Well sort of. First of all he doesn’t have a PC so he’d be locked in to whatever was loaded on it. Second, I’m not sure that the user interface is all that friendly to people who haven’t grown up with PCs and digital gadgets. I figured that a portable CD would be easier. Anyway, I spent a long time trying to find a portable CD player and I could not find one designed for people who have poor eyesight or poor dexterity. Hell, I’m just over fifty (alright, slightly more than “just over”) and with many of them I couldn’t see the markings on the buttons! And when the buttons are tiny and black and the player is black and they are situated around the periphery of the device they aren’t easy to use — you have to remember where they are. Again, easy enough if you grew up with computers and aren’t in pain, on medication, and, well, you get the picture. In the end I gave him an old CD player — a Rio Volt — that I purchased about six years ago which has an easier to use button layout and interface than anything I could find on the shelves of Fry’s, CompUSA, or anywhere else. Now, maybe I’m wrong, maybe there is a CD player out there that really is easy for infirm people to use but if there is, it is a well-kept secret. So, am I wrong? Is any gadget vendor addressing this obviously under served market?