Blind Apple engineer is transforming the tech world

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.

It 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 fulfil 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."

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.

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."

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.

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.

"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."