Apple puts Environment VP Lisa Jackson in charge of boosting 
accessibility efforts
Screenshot 2015-03-02 07.25.30
Apple Watch Accessibility Settings
Apple told employees during a week at the flagship Berlin Apple Store in 
Germany that the company will increase its focus on product 
accessibility by putting executive Lisa Jackson in charge of the 
efforts, according to people in attendance. Asked by an Apple Store 
employee if the Apple Watch will include accessibility features, Cook 
reportedly replied:
“
Yes is the short answer. In every product we do, we want it to be 
accessible for everyone. This is not something that we sit around and 
figure out what the ROI is. I can give a rats what the ROI is. It’s one 
of those things that goes in the just and right column. So we want all 
of our products to be accessible. In the point that you we are on, I 
think we need to raise the awareness of accessibility, and I’ve asked 
Lisa Jackson to work on this. She’s done a great job on the 
environmental impact, and I tend to think we can do the same thing with 
accessibility and create an even better environment than what other 
companies do. The Watch will start with doing some things, but it will 
become better at more things over time. You can make a call from the 
Watch… You can interface with Siri. Siri with this point comes back in a 
textual mode, but we’d like to do something different with that over 
time. But it’s cool for all of us, but I think it is going to be 
profound for some people. More on this.
Lisa Jackson joined Apple in 2013 as its Vice President of Environmental 
affairs, previously serving as the head of the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency. Jackson’s experience in raising awareness of global 
issues, combined with her government and industry connections, makes her 
a prime candidate for boosting Apple’s efforts in accessibility…
While Cook did not go into detail about the Watch’s Accessibility 
features, the Apple Watch Companion application that we detailed earlier 
this year sheds some light on Apple’s plans. Here are the bullet points 
for accessibility that we covered in that earlier article:
• To access Accessibility Settings on the fly, users will triple-click 
the Digital Crown.
• The Apple Watch will have a VoiceOver feature that can speak text that 
is displayed on the screen. Users will be able to scroll through text to 
be spoken using two fingers. VoiceOver can be enabled either by merely 
raising a wrist or by double tapping the display.
• Users will also be able to zoom on the Apple Watch’s screen: double 
tap with two fingers to zoom, use two fingers to pan around, and double 
tap while dragging to adjust the zoom.
• There will also be accessibility settings to reduce motion, control 
stereo audio balance, reduce transparency, switch to grayscale mode, 
disable system animations, and enable bold text.
As Cook said, more enhancements will come over time in future 
generations of the Watch’s hardware and software. For context, Apple 
tends to add new accessibility features to iOS for the iPhone and iPad 
year-after-year via the major annual upgrades. The National Federation 
of the Blind notably has said that Apple “has done more for 
accessibility than any other company.”
On the topic of raising awareness of global issues, Cook is said to have 
said that “Apple is investing in education like never before.” Cook said 
that Apple is moving to lift “underserved and underprivileged” students 
by supplying Apple products. “The early results are very heartwarming,” 
Cook told employees at the Germany meeting. Cook also said that Apple is 
working on improved career development programs to bring more people out 
of universities to Apple.

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                  David Goldfield,
         Assistive Technology Specialist


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