Apple Celebrates Global Accessibility Awareness Day With Stevie Wonder Concert

Friday May 19, 2017 7:59 am PDT by Mitchel Broussard

Apple yesterday held a concert at One Infinite Loop in honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. This morning, CEO Tim Cook tweeted out a thank you to Stevie Wonder, who performed at the concert.

tim cook stevie wonder

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

The event marked one of Apple's traditional "Beer Bash" celebrations, which in the past have seen performances by Maroon 5, One Republic, Darius Rucker, and more, usually coinciding with a major milestone like the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh.

Apple has been highlighting the importance of accessibility features throughout the week, beginning with a large collection of "Designed for" promotional videos that it posted on YouTube on Tuesday. The clips showcased features like VoiceOver and Made for iPhone hearing aids, accompanied by personal stories of how Apple fans with disabilities use each feature.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered pic.twitter.com/CI38dIU8Vj — James Craig (@cookiecrook) May 19, 2017

On Wednesday, Tim Cook then sat down with three accessibility activists to discuss the company's accessibility features across its range of devices. Last October, Apple published an all-new accessibility website that brings all of these features to the forefront as a way to explain and celebrate how the company has built unique accessibility features into iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch.

Tag: Accessibility

Top Rated Comments

bitfactory

83 months ago

Gone are the days when ceo's of Apple used to focus on technology

Give it a rest. Accessibility is one area Apple needs to stay nimble.

I have zero problem with any of this. +morale +public goodwill

Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Rogifan

Gone are the days when CEO'S of Apple used to focus on technology!

Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)

keysofanxiety

Seems like gone are the days when CEO'S of Apple used to focus on technology!

Umm, assistive tech is techology. Jesus, it's called AT. Assistive technology.

Oh sure, throwing in a new CPU every now and then must be far more 'technology focused' than, say, making your devices fully accessible and usable for somebody who can't see squat. Or people who can't hear, or even have control of their limbs.

But no, you really nailed it. Not focused on technology at all.

Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Sunny1990

Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)

i swear there is a day for everything now...

How about a "MacWhiners" day? Oh wait, that'd be a year-long event.

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

joe2k17

I'm blind excuse me for having 1 article a year written on accessibility. The IPhone means way more to me than to you it's a light detector, money reader, scanner for my mail, identifier of objects like can goods, reader, radio, and a whole bunch of other things. Apple was the first to make the same out of box experience for someone blind as yourself by not making them pay extra for a product. Things will return back to normal for yourself now I'm sure there will be a bunch more new posts about the same old things.

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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