Every year, December 3 rd is the International Day of Disabled Persons, and this year is also the 40 th anniversary of Apple's launch of auxiliary functions. On this occasion, Apple invited disabled college students from all over the world to jointly shoot a campus song and dance short film "Designed for Every Student".
In this short film, it not only reflects the same colorful campus life of disabled college students, but also highlights the auxiliary functions in Apple's ecosystem, including narration, amplifier, auxiliary touch, voice recognition, etc., showing how these functions can help disabled groups and get a complete campus experience.
The short film has been launched on Apple Chinese official website
This film "Designed for Every Student" is directed by Kim Gehrig, who directed Apple's Emmy Award-winning accessibility short film "The Greatest" in 2022. This is her return; The songwriting and music production of the musical are handled by Tony Award-winning composer Tim Minchin.
iPhone with Mac Amplifier app
In addition to showing the rich life of disabled college students, the short film also directly introduces many practical applications of Apple's new auxiliary functions. For example, the amplifier app on Mac now can be connected to an external camera, allowing you to zoom in and see things around you, such as a screen or whiteboard. It can be used with the continuous interoperability camera function on the iPhone, and it can also cooperate smoothly with various external USB cameras. It also supports using the desk viewing angle function to read documents.
Accessibility reader
There is also an auxiliary function reader, which brings a new system-wide reading experience, which can make it easier for people with various disorders such as dyslexia and low vision to read text. The accessibility reader can be enabled from any app and is built into the amplifier app for iOS, iPadOS and macOS, so as shown in the short video, with iPhone and Mac, it can interact smoothly with real-world text such as physical books.
Braille access
There is also a little brother in the short film who uses a Braille input device and connects it to an iPad for use. At present, Apple's entire ecosystem has deeply integrated the Braille access function. With the built-in app launcher, you can easily open any app by typing on a connected Braille device. You can quickly take notes in Braille and perform various calculations using Nemeth Braille or UEB Math, two types of Braille codes commonly used in math and science classes. There are also integrated real-time subtitles, which allow you to transcribe conversations in real time directly on the Braille display.
Voice recognition
The iPhone also supports voice recognition for hearing-impaired people. In the short film, a hearing-impaired student is called by a friend in the dormitory. The iPhone can recognize his name and remind the user through flash and screen light. Now the iPhone can recognize 15 different sounds, and you can also train the device to recognize electronic sounds unique to your environment, such as the beep of kitchen appliances, specific types of alarms or doorbells. On the HomePod, sound recognition also detects smoke and carbon monoxide alarm sounds.
iPad and Apple Pencil auxiliary touch
Next, we see a very powerful art student. She has a physical disability, but she can draw very accurate lines by controlling the Apple Pencil with her own feet. With the auxiliary touch function, you can adjust the touch screen according to your physical activity needs. If you can't use specific gestures such as pinching or two-finger tapping, you can replace them with gestures that you can use or create touch actions that are your own.
Use voice to control iPhone selfies
In the last few scenes, there is a physically disabled classmate who uses a voice password to ask her iPhone to help her take selfies with many people. The iPhone can easily interact with your commonly used apps with voice commands such as tap, swipe and tap; Accurately select, drag, and zoom items by tapping the numeric numbers displayed next to them or the positioning grid overlaid on the screen. Voice control also brings more efficient input and editing methods. Modifying content, changing formats, and switching between text dictation and voice commands is smooth.
From narration to amplifier, from Braille display to voice recognition, from auxiliary touch to voice control, these seemingly "hidden" functions in the depths of Apple's system have been pushed into the spotlight again and again in the short film, becoming the hero behind the disabled college students going to the classroom, stage and crowd.
Apple's barrier-free short film "Designed for Every Student" this year is not deliberately sensational, but tells us with the most natural campus daily life: behind Apple's 40-year accumulation of auxiliary functions, "tolerance" is not just a slogan, but implemented in every touch screen, every listening and every writing. Perhaps this is the most powerful appearance of technology: make different and be treated equally; Let every effort have a chance to be fully realized.
