by Shelly Brisbin
Twenty Thousand Hertz dives deep into Apple accessibility history
The latest episode of the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast takes a stab at telling Apple’s accessibility story through sound—not only the sound of a host and his interview subjects, but the way Macs and iPhones sound when they speak to people who use their accessibility features. From the VoiceOver screen reader to AirPods Pro’s hearing assistance features, the episode—which includes interviews and other sound bites from Apple execs—traces a 40-year story of doing the right thing, combined with large dollops of product promotion.
The episode was clearly developed in close cooperation with Apple, and it offers a look at how the company sees its own history with accessibility. But marketing content aside, the episode is a good listen, especially in the first half, when it traces the history of accessibility initiatives at Apple, all the way back to Steve Jobs taking that first Mac out of the bag in 1984, and letting it have its say.
Apple traces its accessibility work back to 1985, and while the podcast skips the dark years in the 90s and early aughts when little was happening on the accessibility front, there is plenty of compelling history here, from the introduction of VoiceOver on the Mac to Stevie Wonder thanking Steve Jobs in 2011 for making iPhones and iPads accessible. That had happened two years before, as I recounted in my documentary 36 Seconds That Changed Everything: How the iPhone Learned to Talk
Apple folks featured in the Twenty Thousand Hertz episode include senior accessibility director Sarah Herrlinger, VP for Sensing and Connectivity Ron Huang, director of Apple Watch product marketing Deidre Caldbeck, and AirPods marketing director Eric Treski. There’s also archival footage of Tim Cook, giving a version of his famous comment about Apple’s support for accessibility being unrelated to ROI.
The second half of the show focuses on hearing-related accessibility features, including sound recognition and, of course, AirPods. Here, the vibe is more marketing-heavy, with stories of lives changed (they do ring true) and recitations of features. But because a podcast has sound-rich audio in its toolbox, the producers are able to demonstrate how AirPods features actually change the sound of the world around the wearer, whether it’s live listen or conversation awareness.