Yip Pin Xiu reckons something awakened in her the day she got a wheelchair. While others might have felt sympathy for her, the freedom 13-year-old Yip suddenly possessed was life-changing.
“People like to think I was really sad when I got a wheelchair, but honestly, it was a very happy moment for me. For once in my teenage life, I didn’t have to depend on anybody to get from place to place,” she admits with a hint of a smile. “I saw it as a symbol of my independence.”
Yip is Singapore’s most decorated Paralympian, with five Paralympic gold medals to her name and two world records: one in the 50m backstroke, and one in the 100m backstroke. She has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a degenerative nerve condition, which results in smaller, weaker muscles, and for Yip, it meant she was unable to walk by the time she was a pre-teen.
That hard-fought independence is now part and parcel of her life, which Yip embraces with pride. The 32-year-old swimmer is waiting for me at Apple Orchard Road when I arrive, beaming as she taps on her iPhone 15 Pro Max and sends something off. Her days are full of purpose—on training days, she has a session at 7 in the morning, before hitting the gym after. Then, she dedicates time to the various causes she is passionate about, such as Sport Singapore and The Purple Parade, a platform to promote awareness and celebrate the abilities of persons with special needs. In the late afternoons or evenings, she heads back to train again.
“My wheelchair is a symbol of my independence”
Her Apple Watch lights up with a notification, which Yip glances quickly at. I’m intrigued to find out how she employs technology in her day-to-day life, given her iPhone journey started with the iPhone 4, over 14 years ago.
“I can’t remember how accessibility on Apple devices was back then,” she laughs. “But now, it really is everything I need. I’m unable to take a photo, because I don’t have fine motor skills, or change the volume button, as I’m not good with buttons, so I use the control centre to formulate cues for me to do those things instead.”
Yip is also a loyal user of Dynamic Island—while it isn’t necessarily an accessibility function, she appreciates how it is beneficial for everyone when they can track alerts or activities in progress.
Last year, Apple brought on a slew of new features for cognitive accessibility, such as Live Speech and Personal Voice. Non-speaking individuals now have the option of typing what they wish to say, to have it spoken out loud during phone or FaceTime calls, or in-person conversations. And for those at risk of losing their ability to speak—for instance, users with a recent diagnosis of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)—Personal Voice can help to create a voice that sounds like them, by first reading a set of text prompts to record 15 minutes of audio. This does not have to be done all at once; you can do a few minutes at a time each day, and it is designed in a way that you do not have to touch the screen either. Once you are done with saying a phrase, it moves on automatically to the next one.
“I’m unable to take a photo, because I don’t have fine motor skills, so I use the control centre to formulate cues for me to do those things instead”
“For someone who is diagnosed with ALS, they have a one in three chance of losing their ability to speak at some point over the progression of the disease,” says Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s senior director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives. “It comes down to the fact that communication is so much a part of all our lives. In whatever format it takes, we are better for being able to communicate with each other, break down barriers, and feel part of a larger community.”
Herrlinger has been on a mission to improve technology for the disability community since 2003. She started off in the education division, particularly in special education, and quickly realised this was the most important work she was ever going to do. Herrlinger strongly believed that children in the disability community needed to not just survive, but to thrive in the education world, and the right people and devices would make an incremental difference in their lives.
“What gets me most excited is the realisation that everything we do has the opportunity to help someone live out their dreams,” muses Herrlinger during our chat at the Apple office in Singapore. “Accessibility is some of the most creative work that you can do, because you have to really think out of the box.”
Though not widely promoted, Apple started their first office of disability in 1985—five years before the Americans with Disabilities Act came to pass. In the beginning, Apple focused on building in features around keyboarding tools, like sticky and slow keys to improve interaction with a device, so users could type with one hand if needed. They sealed their commitment to the community with the introduction of VoiceOver in 2005, first onto the Mac and then into iOS.
“I’m very passionate about levelling the playing field, and doing it in a way that we hope others will join in the process”
“We made sure that for anyone who bought a Mac, whether in a retail store or online, once they opened the box and had that wonderful moment of pulling their Mac out, they could use VoiceOver right out of the box, at no additional cost,” says Herrlinger. Now, 72 percent of the blind community using a mobile device is using an iOs device, a statistic which truly affirms the work that they do.
“I’m very passionate about levelling the playing field, and doing it in a way that we hope others will join in the process. I view disability as something that is really about the human experience. It’s not a more or less thing or anything else; it is that every one of us in the world is unique,” elaborates Herrlinger thoughtfully. “We all have strengths, and things that are different about us.”
There’s even more to look forward to later this year. Apple will be launching fresh accessibility features, such as Eye Tracking, Music Haptics and Vocal Shortcuts. Powered by artificial intelligence, Eye Tracking allows users to navigate iPad and iPhone with just their eyes, while Music Haptics lends an opportunity for those who are deaf or hard of hearing to experience music on iPhone. The Taptic Engine in iPhone plays tap, textures and refined vibrations to the audio of the music. visionOS will also come with Live Captions to help everyone follow along with spoken dialogue in live conversations and in audio from apps. You can now also darken videos to avoid flashing lights, pause animated images if you are sensitive to rapid movement, and adjust transparency levels for better viewing.
Yip is back on her iPhone once we are done with our on-record conversation and an off-record animated discussion about Apple TV’s brilliant television series, Drops of God. She is off to her next appointment and is quickly keying in the address to her next destination on the Grab app. We walk towards her pickup point together, as she tracks the arrival of her vehicle.
“Do you need any help?” I ask, as the doors of her seven-seater car slide open.
Yip shakes her head and throws me a wave. “No, thank you. I’ll be fine,” as she hauls herself into the car, and I wave back as they disappear into the distance.
