Apple’s latest short film on accessibility sends a powerful and timely message about equality in the world of sport. Directed by Derek Cianfrance (Sound of Metal, Blue Valentine), the film documents eight incredible athletes competing in a real-time relay race over four legs. Apple’s film celebrates the determination and sacrifice that all athletes, with or without disabilities, have in common.
Although competitions between athletes with and without disabilities are common, they are rarely shown on screen. The Relay delves into the real lives of eight incredible athletes as they train to compete alongside an able-bodied athlete in a four-leg relay race, highlighting Apple’s strong belief that accessibility is a fundamental human right. The film aims to raise awareness of Apple’s innovative accessibility features and showcase how this technology is being used to create a more level playing field for everyone.
The film stars highly competitive athletes from around the world, some of whom are contenders for the world stage in Los Angeles in 2028. It features a cyclist with a humeral deformity, a wheelchair user, a visually impaired swimmer and a blade runner.
Accessibility is one of Apple’s core values and has been built into Apple products for nearly 40 years. Whether you’re a sprinter, wheelchair athlete, track cyclist, or swimmer, features like the Workout app on Apple Watch, sleep metrics, and daily training goals—along with the ability to track and analyze your performance on iPad and Mac—ensure all athletes have the tools they need to train and perform at their best.
Additional features such as Point and Speak on iPhone for low-vision users and AssistiveTouch, which allows people with upper limb disabilities to use Apple Watch with one hand, enable athletes with disabilities to perform at the same level.
Accessibility on Apple devices:
- Spoken content on iPhone: Reads text aloud for blind and visually impaired users, useful for reading sleep metrics and other text.
- AssistiveTouch on Apple Watch: Allows users with upper limb disabilities to operate Apple Watch without touching the screen. This is useful for silencing alarms, navigating apps, and making selections.
- Magnifier + Point and Speak on iPhone: Allows blind and visually impaired users to point to text on nearby physical objects and have it read aloud, useful for identifying swim lanes.
- Wheelchair Workouts in the Workout app for Apple Watch: Offers wheelchair users two unique options for tracking their workouts: Outdoor Wheelchair Walk Pace and Outdoor Wheelchair Run Pace.
- The film also features third-party apps such as the GoSwim app that helps swimmers analyze their technique on the iPad, MATLAB on the Mac for visualizing aerodynamic data, and Össur’s my i-limb app for the iPhone that allows users to control the grip of their bionic prosthetics.
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