Remembering Tim Cook’s Time at Apple
Today marks Tim Cook’s last day as Apple’s chief executive. John Ternus takes over tomorrow.
Chance Miller at 9to5 Mac reports today on Cook’s last day in Cupertino’s catbird seat, including the memo sent to employees. Cook wrote, in part, “this is a moment I always knew would come one day, and yet it is still hard to believe it has arrived and I am writing these words.” He expressed similar sentiments in a post on X.
Cook’s tenure as CEO predates my time in tech journalism, but not by much. He took over in 2011 before Steve Jobs died, while I didn’t become a reporter until May 2013. The entirety of my 13-years-and-counting career covering Apple at extremely close range has coincided with Cook’s leadership of the company. While Apple’s work in accessibility predates Cook’s time at the company by decades, accessibility awareness and innovation has taken great strides in his time; honestly, I’m not too interested in debating his legacy, but will say it does mean a lot as a lifelong person with disabilities to have the guy say things like Apple works on assistive technologies “not for the bloody ROI” and to participate in accessibility-oriented events. In 2018, I travelled across the bay to the California School for the Deaf—fortuitously, located in my hometown of Fremont—on a little reporting trip to cover Apple’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) celebration that year. I was told in advance by Apple PR that Cook would make an appearance at the intimate gathering—but I didn’t know I’d be interviewing Cook, however briefly. I vividly remember Cook shaking my hand and warmly telling me he’d love to talk about the morning’s announcements. So, there I was, standing alongside Cook and actor, model, and Deaf activist Nyle DiMarco, spending 5–10 minutes speaking to Cook, on the record, about the news Apple wanted to share. His comments made it into a story I wrote for TechCrunch that ran on the site later that day.
“Accessibility has been a priority at Apple for a long time,” Cook said to me. “We believe in focusing on ability rather than disability. We believe coding is a language—a language that should be accessible to everyone.”
Eight years, and many Apple event selfies with him, later, that short interview with Cook remains the crown jewel of my career. As a disabled person personally, and as someone who has carved out an important but admittedly niche beat in accessibility, to have had those few minutes to speak with the man who leads one of the biggest companies on the planet continues to be an enormous feather in my proverbial cap. This experience has led me to ruminate on Apple’s future as it pertains to accessibility, especially as Ternus takes over from Cook. As I wrote in late March, it’s fair to wonder, even fret to a degree—indeed, change is immensely scary if you’re a disabled person—what Ternus will do to Apple accessibility during his time. Will it stay the course? Will it regress? Will it venture into uncharted territory? Logic says the commitment remains steadfast as ever, but the salient point is only Ternus is not Cook and it’s reasonable to think things will, or could, change under Ternus.
Maybe, like Cook, I’ll have an opportunity to someday interview Ternus about accessibility at Apple.
