I switched my mother, who also has cognitive decline, from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone SE to keep the same shape and the home button. She was never able to master the upward swipe on her new iPad.

Changing to the newer iOS was challenging for her due to the significantly smaller and pushed to the top call answering buttons. Apple does a lot for accessibility, but I really wish they had an “old persons mode”.

iOS 17 is supposed to come with a new "Assistive Access" setting[0] which is intended to be an "old person's mode" with limited but pronounced functionality.

In the meantime, you should be able to solve the call banner issue through a relatively hidden setting; Settings > Phone > Incoming Calls > "Full Screen" should put things back to the way they were.

[0] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/05/apple-previews-live-s...

It’s coming in iOS 17: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/05/apple-previews-live-s...

I believe that the "top call answering buttons" is the banner for incoming call?. You can change that to be a full-screen one in settings-> phone -> incoming calls. If that's what you mean?

I really dislike the little banner thing and much prefer a full-screen image of whoever's calling.

There is also an assistive mode available that you can use on all iPhones to put a software "home button" always on screen.

I know because one of my previous iPod Touch devices had a broken physical home button so I used the assistive mode sofware button instead.

This might also work for people who are too old to understand how to use the phone without the physical button.