Roger Fingas
A profile published on Sunday details the experiences and work of Jordyn Castor, a blind Apple engineer now developing technologies like VoiceOver with company's accessibility design and quality team.
Castor has been blind since birth, but growing up, was encouraged by adults to experiment with gadgets like computers in spite of the steeper learning curve, according to Mashhable. She received an iPad for her 17th birthday, and says she was impressed by the fact she could use it out of the box, unlike other electronics which can sometimes require expensive add-ons or software for people with disabilities.
She eventually went to Michigan State University, and was hired as an intern at Apple following a 2015 job fair in Minneapolis. That internship turned into her current full-time position.
Castor notes that she programs using a combination of alphabetic and Nemeth (mathematical) Braille, and actually prefers Braille when reading meeting agendas as well, since she can "see" the grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Nevertheless she uses VoiceOver alone to navigate devices.
Some of her more recent work includes adding accessibility support for Swift Playgrounds, Apple's iPad-based code learning app.
Apple is planning to further improve accessibility features in OS updates due this fall. watchOS 3, for example, will be able to tell time through vibrations on an Apple Watch, and the arrival of Siri in macOS Sierra should expand Mac voice commands.
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13 Comments
The best user experience is generated by functionality that allows growth and possibilities without boundaries.
Big congrats to Ms Castor for her work and to Apple for hiring the best person for the job.
Apple apparently has a fairly large accessibility team. I believe it was the 2015 WWDC that had two engineers from the team go up on stage and do a presentation. Pretty impressive and did real well when you consider that there was no visual clues to work with.
Frankly this his is an example of why I can't really support the LGBT community and their constant ranting about rights. The fact is there are plenty of people that are born with more extensive birth defects that get through life just find. Maybe it isn't a popular opinion right now but I really think the LGBT community needs to gain a little perspective. The struggles they have are no where near what some people are saddled with.
Not only unnecessary, but an incorrect analogy. A truer analogy would be if Apple had a blanket policy not to hire anyone who is blind or has another disability.