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Apple Highlights Autism Acceptance Month Through App Store, Retail Field Trips
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MR periodically reports on Apple's "diversity" reports (census numbers), and it never seems like they do. Looks like the average West Coast programmer.
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Heh, meanwhile I started and finished my BA with, so far, a semester to spare before the new Mac Pro. Maybe they'll release one by the time I have an MS so I can get myself a graduation gift... Nah, I should go for a PhD because they probably still won't have one ready by then.
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Criticize all you want. Complain all you want. But if one person, or one child gets results and makes their situation better, they will exceed and excel far better than any of your rants will ever do. they will be a better person, while all you are left with is your bitterness.
Full disclaimer: my wife is legally blind, and Apple's accessibility features cost a hell of a lot less and are less virus/malware/crippleware prone than any Windows-based solution. And as far as Android goes, I'm a Linux systems Administrator. I've been building and maintaining Linux-based servers and devices for the past 25 years. I'm tired of being the one that has to maintain it when vulnerabilities occur. When my job impacts my family's life, that is when work crosses the line.
But you won't know much about that, or experience that, because by your own admission and your rants, you don't suffer from any disability. So while this isn't Autism-related, I'll make you a deal since you're ranting about how accessibility options are only there to have Apple make money and appease its shareholders:
We will switch completely back to Windows and Linux for everything we have, if you give my wife your eyes.
In short, walk a mile in hers and an Autistic person's shoes, then come back and see how you take your lack of disabilities for granted.
BL.
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It is absolutely astonishing that all you people can't see Apple is just using these people to sell products. You think Apple is some white night here to save humanity. They are here to make money. Selling iPads to people with disabilities and showcasing it is about selling iPads. They didn't give a damn about autism until they realized it could sell iPads and build this image of the warm and caring Apple that has no interest in money. It's all a bunch of bull. They are trying to help people with "retail store field trips". Are you all that dense not to see it for what it really is? You don't make a highlight video and show it during a product announcement unless it is to pull at the heart strings of the customers. It is all manipulation and exploitation and you are thanking Apple for using people. Unreal. If Apple gave a damn about any of these people they would be doing a lot more than inviting them to the store for yet another product pitch. I'm glad that these devices are helping people and it's great that they exist. But not seeing that Apple is gaining from this and trying to use it to sell products is dangerous. It's just another Apple style reality distortion field.
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They allow my wife to communicate with the little vision she has with her friends and family. Their products are allowing her to see where in other cases, she wouldn't. Apple is at least caring about the people who uses their products.
Can you say the same about Microsoft? Oracle? Dell? Nvidia? AMD/ATI?
For a blind person, in addition to buying the hardware with a very limited warranty (if not built yourself), Microsoft has you going out and buying either Dragon Dictate or Jaws, in which the latter is a $1,100 purchase on top of buying the hardware.
For that price alone, you already have the Macbook, with the support for it built in, and fully supported by Apple, not some third party who supports the product on a time-given basis. Add in the cost of a desktop or laptop for that, and you're already at the cost of a Macbook Pro. Make it a high-end laptop, and you're at the cost of a 15" MBP with TouchBar, or iMac.
Then you add in the maintenance for the PC, longevity and reliability of the hardware and software (most major brand PCs tend to die on you ~3 months after the warranty expires), and you're then paying for extended support, plus extra software to be installed, plus paying for an OS upgrade. At that point, you're at the $3000 range - the cost of a Mac Pro.
BL.
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I'm not saying its not helpful, I am calling Apple out on it's motives. My problem is that Apple is using these people to sell products. Any chance they get they tell you some sad success story about someone using an iPad to improve their lives. Which is fine. I am perfectly happy all these people have tools to improve their lives. But the fact that Apple is at the same time using these people needs to be called out. There is a big difference in helping people and not showing/telling everyone. It's a marketing tool. When I helped my friends blind father with a television project many years ago I didn't even put my name in the credits. You don't boast about all your good deeds if they are good deeds. Apple likes to tell you all the good things they do. Why? To sell you products using emotional manipulation. People think "if I support Apple I'm helping these people....let's buy an iPad!" I've had a lot of interaction with blind, special needs, and others that you have no idea about. You don't know crap about me and I am not going to cite all my history just to argue with you. So before you just tell me your sad story and write off my opinion....you should probably ask where I got it from. I am happy that your wife's life has been enhanced by these devices, what I am not happy about is that Apple would sell her out in a heart beat if it mean more money in their pockets. Maybe if you had a small glimpse on the inside of Apple like I have you would understand better. But don't make this about me hating on your family, because that is not what this is about. This is about Apple using your family to sell more products.
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There are so few disabled people, and the features are too expensive to implement for it to make sense. Apple doesn't advertise them. There's no ROI from it, and they do it anyway. Remember that corporations are run by people who don't necessarily value money above all else, even though a relatively high number of them do. They tend to serve the shareholders by making profit but won't always do it perfectly, especially when there's a moral choice to be made.
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