I disagree. Companies aren't "selected" to be in the list. They register and complete a survey. The survey is a tool, a tool designed to help companies move towards "accessibility." Why would Apple use such a tool if they believe they are already beyond? If they did complete the survey and happen to score well, people would accuse them of a PR stunt. Only ~80 companies have even used the tool since its inception, so this isn't some type of alpha omega list that entitles someone to make or not make a statement about something.
Also, did you notice the very first areas covered by the survey are 1) company culture and 2) leadership? These interviews by Mr. Cook precisely serve both of those areas. Public statements/interviews like this do much to influence culture within the company, especially one of Apple's size. There is a big difference in company cultural influence when making a speech/statement to employees vs making one to the would. Of course, you said he shouldn't be making statements because Apple isn't on the list. Hmm.
If Apple was "beyond" AAPD standards they would be on the list. AND, Apple would be engaged with and supporting AAPD with the goal of moving the entire community forward. Companies engage AAPD to promote community based open standards for promoting disability employment. If Apple has some secret "gold" method to support disabled people in the workplace, then NOT engaging the community is a blatant lack of leadership.
Apple retails hires more people with disabilities than I've seen anyone else do in the tech space. I know many friends within my community who work as Geniuses, Specialists, Creatives, and even Managers(Leaders). These same people are blind, deaf, autistic, wheel-chair users, service/guide dog users, etc. I know at least 14 people with disabilities personally, and have met even more briefly. During my trip at corporate this past week, there wasn't anything different. Many people with disabilities are employed by Apple from contractors, to corporate employees. Just because they're not listed on a website doesn't mean you can speak for many of us and who employs us. Every person featured with a disability in Apple's ads are people with disabilities in the entertainment industry, a place often overshadowed by able-bodied actors taking roles from PWDs and playing disabled characters themselves. Hope that sheds some light on the facts.
I'm sure these employees are very capable, but Retail is the most publicly visible part of Apple.
Apple employs people with disabilities. Hell, they had a blind engineer on stage at WWDC a few years ago demoing the Accessibility features he helped build.
Again, high visibility. Marketing. What are the disability employment metrics for ALL of Apple's engineering departments?
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Your logic is completely backwards.
Apple is the company empowering, through the technologies on the devices that they build, many of the people who work for these other companies to do their job to best of their ability, and in spite of their disability.
These lists encourage the very practice that you accuse Apple of taking part in. Companies are audited and threatened that "if they don't score high marks, they'll be looked at negatively in the public", so they check off their boxes and score 100% for compliance. Meanwhile, Apple is actually the one spending $$$ to make tech accessible and building more awareness and advocacy to their cause than any comment you could think of posting to MR.
Point blank, Apple and anyone who is contributing to this space should be praised and recognized, not lambasted for their efforts, regardless of how big or small, because it gets the conversation going.
And lastly, these individuals posted the videos to their own youtube accounts.. Apple didn't publish it.
Again, I never said Apple throws disabled persons off of buildings.
Also, the videos were shot on Apple's campus so APPLE owns them and all copyrights to them. The individuals were only able to post on their respective accounts them because Apple granted them the permission to do so. Apple only granted this permission after approving the final edits of each video. The interview scripts and questions were approved in advance and there were pages of legal agreements to sign before the individuals were allowed anywhere near Apple's campus with a camera.
Again, given Apple's self proclaimed position of global leadership in all things considered socially conscious, they should meet and surpass AAPDs standards, and also have demonstrable accomplishments of how they move AAPD and the entire community of disabled persons forward.
