Apple CEO Tim Cook Talks Accessibility With Three Accessibility Activists

In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which takes place tomorrow, Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down with three YouTubers to discuss the Accessibility features built into Apple's iOS and Mac devices.

Each of the three YouTubers, who met Cook at Apple's campus for coffee, have shared their conversations with the CEO on their respective YouTube channels. All three, including legally blind filmmaker James Rath, deaf advocate and vlogger Rikki Poynter, and actress Tatiana Lee, who was born with Spina Bifida, talked about the Apple products that they use in their daily lives. The three interviews can be watched below.




During his meeting with Poynter, Cook explained Apple's stance on accessibility and why the company goes to great lengths to make sure its devices are available to everyone.

Apple is founded on giving people power to create things, to do things that they couldn't do without those tools. And we've always viewed accessibility as a human right. And so just like human rights are for everyone, we want our products to be accessible for everyone. And so it's a basic core value of Apple. We don't make products for a particular group of people. We make products for everybody.

We feel very strongly that everyone deserves an equal opportunity and equal access. So we don't look at this thing from a return on investment point of view -- I've been asked that before. The answer is no, I've never looked at that. We don't care about that.

In addition to Cook's meetings, Apple also recently published a series of "Designed for" accessibility videos, highlighting the different ways Apple's Accessibility features are used to make Apple devices available to everyone, and there's currently an Accessibility feature in the App Store promoting Accessibility apps.

Since October, Apple has had a detailed Accessibility website that demonstrates and promotes the extensive Accessibility options built into Apple products.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
m4 macbook air pink

Apple Now Selling Refurbished M4 MacBook Air Models

Friday June 13, 2025 3:34 pm PDT by
Apple today added M4 MacBook Air models to its refurbished store in the United States, making the latest MacBook Air devices available at a discounted price for the first time since they launched earlier this year. Both 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models are available, with Apple offering multiple capacities and configurations. The refurbished devices are discounted by approximately 15...

Top Rated Comments

Uaaerospace2 Avatar
106 months ago
Go to http://www.aapd.com
(American Association of People with Disabilities)
Click on employment, which takes you to : http://jobs.aapd.com/jobs
Search for Apple jobs in CA
Find no jobs listed by Apple

Now you understand Apple does not really give a sh1z about the disabled, and just uses this garbage as part of their faux "we care" emotional marketing strategy. Period.
Really? Why don't you inform your "opinion" by observing or working with people who actually need and use accessibility features in tech. Spend a day or two at Accessing Higher Ground and meet people who use the features. Work with students through an office of disability services for a day or two. Then come back and share an informed opinion. Apple's tech is pretty darn good at allowing people to access content and get on with their lives. Is it perfect? No, but few things are. Apple has been a longtime provider of accessible tech and, I would guess, has done more to promote accessibility in technology than...say...you.

Your posting of the aapd job board goes to show how desperate you are to criticizee. Why would apple post there? My place of employment has many people with the sole responsibility of providing accommodations and ensuring web, etc. accessibility. There are many, many others who have the responsibility as part of our normal job because we create content. You won't find any of our jobs posted there either. So, the logical conclusion is that we don't care about accessibility? What?
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
christarp Avatar
106 months ago
Jeez, Everyone here is so mad about these videos for some reason. It's a few feel good videos with real people with real disabilities and how they've had things improve for them with Apple. Can you not just be happy about something for once in your life? This is one of those feel good moments you can just sit back and watch.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
consoleboi Avatar
106 months ago
Sorry Tim, I'm not buying the Kool-Aid you're selling.

"we don't look at ROI", "we want to make Apple products accessible to everyone".

How about making it cheaper so everyone can afford it would be a good start!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
-BigMac- Avatar
106 months ago
"Everyone should have equal access"

Proceeds to increase every products base price for the last 5 years.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
developer13245 Avatar
106 months ago
Really? Why don't you inform your "opinion" by observing or working with people who actually need and use accessibility features in tech. Spend a day or two at Accessing Higher Ground and meet people who use the features. Work with students through an office of disability services for a day or two. Then come back and share an informed opinion. Apple's tech is pretty darn good at allowing people to access content and get on with their lives. Is it perfect? No, but few things are. Apple has been a longtime provider of accessible tech and, I would guess, has done more to promote accessibility in technology than...say...you.

Your posting of the aapd job board goes to show how desperate you are to criticizee. Why would apple post there? My place of employment has many people with the sole responsibility of providing accommodations and ensuring web, etc. accessibility. There are many, many others who have the responsibility as part of our normal job because we create content. You won't find any of our jobs posted there either. So, the logical conclusion is that we don't care about accessibility? What?
see:

http://www.aapd.com/disability-equality-index/

Apple is nowhere on the list, which is unacceptable for a company of their 'stature' that prattles on about how socially conscious they claim to be.

Sure, a lot of companies are not on the list, but until Apple IS on the list, they have no credibility to publish this type of emotional advertising.

Essentially, they can sell to the disabled, but do not support them as an employer.

Apple's performance in the area of disability support does not match their message.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
amegicfox Avatar
106 months ago
when does this man work ? he is a wanna be politician and really bad at it too

Tim resign from Apple so can a young smart person can make Apple great again
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)