This blind Apple engineer is transforming the tech world at only 
22
  Apple engineer Jordyn Castor has never been one for 
limitations.
  She was born 15 weeks early, weighing just under two pounds.  
Her grandfather could hold her in the palm of his hand, and could 
even slide his wedding ring along her arm and over her shoulder.  
Doctors said she had a slim chance of survival.  was Castor's 
first brush with limited expectations - and also the first time 
she shattered them.
  Castor, now 22, has been blind since birth, a result of her 
early delivery.  But throughout childhood, her parents encouraged 
her to defy expectations of people with disabilities, motivating 
her to be adventurous, hands-on and insatiably curious.
  It was that spirit that led to her interact with technology, 
whether it was the desktop computer her family bought when she 
was in second grade, or the classroom computer teachers 
encouraged her to use in school.
  She says the adults in her life would often hand her a gadget, 
telling her to figure it out and show them how to use it.  And 
she would.
  "I realized then I could code on the computer to have it 
fulfill the tasks I wanted it to," says Castor, whose current 
work focuses on enhancing features like VoiceOver for blind Apple 
users.  "I came to realize that with my knowledge of computers 
and technology, I could help change the world for people with 
disabilities.
  "I could help make technology more accessible for blind users."
  Bringing a personal perspective to Apple innovation
  There's an often overlooked component of "diversity" in 
workplace initiatives - the need to include the perspectives of 
people with disabilities.
  Keeping tabs on the needs of the blind and low-vision community 
is a key component of Apple's innovation in accessibility.  
Castor is proof of how much that can strengthen a company.
  She was a college student at Michigan State University when she 
was first introduced to Apple at a Minneapolis job fair in 2015.  
Castor went to the gathering of employers, already knowing the 
tech giant would be there - and she was nervous.
  "You aren't going to know unless you try," she thought.  "You 
aren't going to know unless you talk to them ...  so go."
  Castor told Apple reps how amazed she was by the iPad she 
received as a gift for her 17th birthday just a few years 
earlier.  It raised her passion for tech to another level - 
mainly due to the iPad's immediate accessibility.
  "Everything just worked and was accessible just right out of 
the box," Castor tells Mashable.  "That was something I had never 
experienced before."
  Sarah Herrlinger, senior manager for global accessibility 
policy and initiatives at Apple, says a notable part of the 
company's steps toward accessibility is its dedication to making 
inclusivity features standard, not specialized.  This allows 
those features to be dually accessible - both for getting the 
tech to more users, as well as keeping down costs.
  "[These features] show up on your device, regardless of if you 
are someone who needs them," Herrlinger tells Mashable.  "By 
being built-in, they are also free.  Historically, for the blind 
and visually impaired community, there are additional things you 
have to buy or things that you have to do to be able to use 
technology."
  At that job fair in 2015, Castor's passion for accessibility 
and Apple was evident.  She was soon hired as an intern focusing 
on VoiceOver accessibility.
  As her internship came to a close, Castor's skills as an 
engineer and advocate for tech accessibility were too commanding 
to let go.  She was hired full-time as an engineer on the 
accessibility design and quality team - a group of people Castor 
describes as "passionate" and "dedicated."
  "I'm directly impacting the lives of the blind community," she 
says of her work.  "It's incredible."
  Innovation with blind users in mind
  Increased accessibility for all users is one of Apple's driving 
values, under themantra "inclusion inspires innovation."
  Herrlinger says the company loves what it makes, and wants what 
it makes to be available to everyone.  She describes the need to 
continuously innovate with accessibility in mind as part of 
Apple's DNA.
  "Accessibility is something that is never-ending," Herrlinger 
says.  "It isn't something where you just do it once, check that 
box and then move on to do other things."
  And it's a dedication that isn't going unnoticed by the blind 
community.  On July 4, Apple was the recipient of the American 
Council of the Blind's Robert S.  Bray Award for the company's 
strides in accessibility and continued dedication to 
inclusion-based innovation for blind users.
  The company, for example, made the first touchscreen device 
accessible to the blind via VoiceOver.  Recent announcements of 
Siri coming to Mac this fall, and of newer innovations, like a 
magnifying glass feature for low-vision users, have continued the 
promise of improving the Apple experience for those who are blind 
and low vision.
  "The fact that we take the time to innovate in these ways is 
something new and different," Herrlinger says.  "It was not the 
expected thing in the tech community."
  Often, the success of such innovations depends on the input of 
the community - and employees like Castor provide irreplaceable 
first-hand insight into the tech experience for blind 
individuals.
  The most recent example of community-driven innovation can be 
found on the Apple Watch.  During a meeting, Herrlinger explains, 
a person who sees could easily peer down at their watch to keep 
an eye on the clock.  A person who is blind, however, hasn't had 
a way to tell time without VoiceOver.
  After confronting the conundrum, Apple solved the issue by 
making a feature that tells time through vibrations.  The 
addition, Herrlinger says, is coming to watchOS 3 this fall.
  High-tech meets low-tech
  Castor says her own success - and her career - hinges on two 
things: technology and Braille.  That may sound strange to many 
people, even to some who are blind and visually impaired.  
Braille and new tech are often depicted as at odds with one 
another, with Braille literacy rates decreasing as the presence 
of tech increases.
  But many activists argue that Braille literacy is the key to 
employment and stable livelihood for blind individuals.  With 
more than 70% of blind people lacking employment, the majority of 
those who are employed - an estimated 80% - have something in 
common: They read Braille.
  For Castor, Braille is crucial to her innovative work at Apple 
- and she insists tech is complementary to Braille, not a 
replacement.
  "I use a Braille display every time I write a piece of code," 
she says.  "Braille allows me to know what the code feels like."
  In coding, she uses a combination of Nemeth Braille - or "math 
Braille" - and Alphabetic Braille.  Castor even says that with 
the heavy presence of tech in her life, she still prefers to read 
meeting agendas in Braille.
  "I can see grammar.  I can see punctuation.  I can see how 
things are spelled and how things are written out," she says.
  The technologies that Apple creates support her love of 
Braille, too - there are various modifications, like Braille 
displays that can to plug into devices, to help her code and 
communicate.  But Castor also often forgoes Braille displays, 
solely using VoiceOver to navigate her devices and read screens.
  That autonomy of choice in accessibility, Apple says, is 
intentional.  The company believes that the ability to choose - 
to have several tools at a user's disposal, whenever they want 
them - is key to its accessibility values.
  Giving back to the community
  Last week, Castor attended a conference hosted by the National 
Federation of the Blind, where she gave a speech telling her 
story.  She says the impact that Apple has had on the blind 
community was extremely clear as soon as she stepped into the 
conference hall - just by listening to what was going on around 
her.
  "When I walk through the convention, I hear VoiceOver 
everywhere," she says..  "Being able to give back through 
something that so many people use is amazing."
  Castor was recently able to use her presence and perspective at 
Apple to give back to a part of the community she's especially 
passionate about - the next generation of engineers.
  She was a driving force behind accessibility on Apple's 
soon-to-be releasedSwift Playgrounds, an intro-to-coding program 
geared toward children.  She's been working to make the program 
accessible to blind children, who have been waiting a long time 
for the tool, she says.
  "I would constantly get Facebook messages from so many parents 
of blind children, saying, 'My child wants to code so badly.  Do 
you know of a way that they can do t"'" Castor says.  "Now, when 
it's released, I can say, 'Absolutely, absolutely they can start 
coding.'"
  Castor says working on Swift Playgrounds has been an empowering 
experience, and her team has deeply valued her perspective on the 
VoiceOver experience for blind users.
  She says the task-based, interactive app would have made a 
massive impact on her as a child.  The program is, after all, a 
guided way of taking tech and figuring out what makes it tick - a 
virtual version of the hands-on curiosity adults instilled in her 
as a child.
  "It will allow children to dive into code," she says of the 
program.  "They can use Swift Playgrounds right away out of the 
box; no modifications.  Just turn on VoiceOver and be able to 
start coding."
  As someone who was always encouraged to challenge expectations, 
Castor says she has one simple message for the next generation of 
blind coders, like the children who will sit down with Swift 
Playgrounds in the fall.
  "Blindness does not define you," she says.  "It's part of who 
you are as a person, as a characteristic - but it does not define 
you or what you can do in life."


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