A Woman With Cerebral Palsy Edited Apple's Uplifting Accessibility Ad

Film Debuted During Yesterday's Keynote

Published On
Oct 28, 2016

Editor's Pick

To kick off its keynote yesterday, Apple played this beautiful film showcasing how accessible -- and empowering -- its products are for users with disabilities.

The spot opens with a scene of a woman with cerebral palsy getting ready for her day. She looks into a mirror as someone brushes her hair and puts on her clothes. But once she gets to her computer, a Mac, she's all on her own, on fire as she shifts her head side to side, using the pads on her chair to control the program on her screen.

"People think that having a disability is a barrier," she says through an automated voice-over. "But that's not the way I see it."

The ad then goes on to show others embracing life, thanks to their Apple devices. A blind man uses image recognition on his iPhone to take a picture of a little family member's smiling face. Two friends communicate through sign language on Facetime. A woman rises from bed and lifts the shades in her bedroom through her iPhone before getting into her wheelchair. A schoolboy is able to focus on his reading as his iPad reads out and highlights each word on the screen. A woman goes all in with her wheelchair workout, with the help of her Apple Watch.

But then the scene reverses at high-speed, the camera pulls out and we're back to the narrator, at her computer. It turns out she's been editing it this whole time.

The narrator, Sady Paulson, is a real editor, director and cinematographer who recently graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Cinematography. She used Apple's Switch Control to edit the ad.

Apple also debuted a second version of the film, featuring audio descriptions. The new video, created in-house at Apple, appears on Apple's new accessibility site, which gives users a deeper dive into its technologies featured within.