How Apple Could Help Me as a College Student With a Disability

My Dearest Apple,

I write you because I am a college student with a disability, and I think I have your next great idea. I write you this here because, after Taylor Swift had such a response regarding Apple Music (which I am a huge fan of!) I hope that I too could be so lucky.

I have cerebral palsy and my love affair with you started when I got my first iPod, meaning I no longer had to buy various copies of CDs due to them skipping in my CD player because of my limp. As a music lover, I cannot thank you enough for the way you have changed music. My love for you grew stronger when I got my first iPhone in 2007, and I became a full-fledged Apple addict while studying graphic design in high school – prompting me to beg my mother for my first MacBook.

I am now a college student. I am unable to carry my MacBook from class to class due to its weight, so your iPad has become my MacBook on the go. Your iPhone is lifeline for staying on top of all things school and business, and your MacBook my heavy duty hard worker. You have forever changed the way I do things as a disabled person.

But now Apple, I write to you hoping you can help all of us, disabled and non, once more. I love what you’ve done with iOS 9 – it’s beautiful and effective. I have taken my Apple products back to the basics.

I was not a Passbook user; I didn’t and still don’t understand how I save and scan movie tickets or coupons to my phone. But I am so excited for the future of Wallet and Apple Pay. I cannot use it where I am – none of my cards are currently supported and not too many businesses around me have gotten on board yet.

It got me thinking, though… I’m a student at Penn State University. Like most colleges, we use our ID cards for everything – we swipe for meal plans, to unlock buildings, do laundry, buy newspapers – they’re a lot like debit, credit, rewards to us. Why then, Apple, can I not store my student ID in my Apple Wallet to scan when I need to buy a meal or lock myself out of my building?

As a student with a disability I cannot explain how much more simple and easy this would make my life – no more fumbling with my actual wallet to dig out my ID card while trying to hold and carry my backpack, books, and everything else. You, Apple, have already made my life so much more simple, easier and productive; you’ve taken away my need to weigh down my backpack with heavy books whenever possible, you’ve taken away my need to carry notebooks completely, you’ve reduced my need for dragging around a planner with your apps. The fluency of your devices means that my missing a deadline is no one’s fault but my own.

You have paved the way for so many things. I hope you can start a revolution with this one, too. Students with and without disabilities everywhere will thank you.

Love,

Brittney

P.S. This will help ease the fears of every student who has temporarily misplaced their ID card.

Story originally published on My Life As Brittney.