Apple is kicking off 2025 with a milestone worth talking about: forty years of building accessibility into its products.
It’s one of those long-haul commitments that quietly shapes the way people learn, communicate, and simply live their everyday lives. To celebrate the anniversary, Apple dropped a new film that follows Deaf and disabled students as they navigate college life using accessibility features baked into the Apple ecosystem.
Instead of focusing on specs or hardware, the film zooms in on the real college experience. Getting around campus, joining clubs, learning new skills, hanging out with friends, and everything in between. Because school is always more than textbooks and lectures, and having the right assistive tools can make the entire experience feel more accessible and more fun.
Throughout the film, you’ll spot features like VoiceOver, Magnifier on Mac, Braille Access, AssistiveTouch on Apple Watch and iPad, Accessibility Reader, Sound & Name Recognition, and Live Captions. These are tools designed to help students study more comfortably, navigate more confidently, and engage more fully in student life, both inside and outside the classroom.
The heart of the film is a lively musical number performed by Deaf and disabled students from around the world. It’s upbeat, celebratory, and guided by none other than Tony award-winning composer Tim Minchin, who handled both songwriting and musical production. Directing the project is Kim Gehrig — a familiar name for Apple fans — who previously led the Emmy award-winning 2022 accessibility short The Greatest.
This isn’t Apple’s first time spotlighting accessibility in creative storytelling. The company has a growing catalog of campaigns centered on disability representation, including Taika Waititi’s The Lost Voice, the Paralympic tribute The Relay, the 2024 Emmy-nominated holiday campaign Heartstrings, and the more recent docu-style series on Parkinson’s, No Frame Missed. Each one leans into the idea that accessibility isn’t a side project — it’s part of Apple’s identity.
With this new film, Apple is reminding everyone that accessibility continues to evolve, and that students deserve tools that help them experience college life in all its messy, joyful, life-changing fullness.
