Neil Hughes
Multi-platinum Grammy winning artist Stevie Wonder performed at Apple's corporate headquarters this week, in an event recognizing Global Accessibility Awareness Day, focused on making technology accessible and usable for persons with disabilities.
Wonder, who is blind, is known for hits including "Sir Duke," "I Just Called to Say I Love you," and "Superstition." Over his legendary career, he has had more than 30 top ten songs in the U.S., and he has been awarded 25 Grammys.
Friday morning, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook shared a picture of himself and Wonder hugging onstage, while Apple employees cheer in the background. Cook thanked the "incomparable" artist "for lifting hearts and celebrating accessibility."
Global Accessibility Awareness Day has been around since 2012, taking place on the third Thursday in May.
Thank you to the incomparable Stevie Wonder for lifting hearts and celebrating accessibility with us! #GAAD pic.twitter.com/WvePkgte5R
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 19, 2017
Wonder has been an outspoken fan of Apple for years, calling attention to the accessibility features found in iOS during a concert back in 2011. In his remarks, Wonder thanked Steve Jobs for working to make technology accessible to everyone.
"There's nothing on the iPhone or iPad that you can do that I can't do," Wonder said.
The singer also appeared in Apple's Christmas commercial back in 2015.
In addition, earlier this week Cook met with James Rath, a legally blind filmmaker and YouTube star; Tatiana A. Lee, an actress and lifestyle blogger with Accessible Hollywood who was born with spina bifida; and Rikki Poynter, an advocate for Deaf awareness and closed captioning.
On Twitter, Cook said his conversations with Rath, Lee and Poynter were "great conversations about the importance of accessibility."
Thanks @JamesRath @PintSzDiva @RikkiPoynter for visiting Apple for #GAAD! Great conversations about the importance of accessibility. pic.twitter.com/APg8J3LRvY
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 18, 2017
Finally, earlier this week Apple highlighted Global Accessibility Awareness Day with a series of videos entitled "Designed for Everyone." They showcased how real people make use of Mac, iOS and Apple Watch accessibility features such as Switch Control, Siri and VoiceOver.
Apple has a long history of working to make open accessibility a key feature of its hardware products and software development platforms.
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5 Comments
Wow, that is quite an impressive artist to have for a staff concert. Do you have the picture of Stevie and Tim together. That would be wonderful.
I am loving how Apple has been pushing accessibility lately. Last year with the watch updates and wheelchair exercise, the focus they have put into their own software, and the sessions / labs at WWDC focused on the area.
With that being said, I wanted to complain here about the self entitlement displayed in the comments at macrumors. I will not go to that website any longer. People complaining about not releasing macs and doing this event. Crazy. I am glad this website has stayed sane through the growth through the years.
It's getting a little tiring to read all this complaining about the MacRumours forum here.
I've never been there and I don't care what kind of commentary goes on there.
We have enough trouble as it is here with trolls. No need to talk about another forum with the same problems.