When Rory sat down at his Mac for the first time after losing most of his sight, he spent six hours working and came away with one conclusion: this is going to work. That moment — quiet, private, and entirely self-directed — is what genuine accessibility looks like in practice. Apple’s short film about Rory, a business student in Belfast with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, is one of the most honest portrayals of how technology can either remove barriers or leave blind and partially sighted people behind.
From Diagnosis to Three A*s: What Rory’s Journey Actually Shows
Rory was mid-way through his A-levels when he noticed he could no longer read the interactive whiteboard. Within two to three months, he had gone from struggling at distance to being unable to read text directly in front of him. His remaining vision stands at three to five per cent.
His response was not to wait for someone to solve it for him. While still in hospital, he started exploring the accessibility features on his iPhone. His reasoning was straightforward: if he could figure out how to use his phone, everything else would follow.
That instinct — to take ownership, to adapt, to find the method — led him to three A* grades, a place at university, and a letter to Apple thanking them for the role their products played in keeping his education on track.
Why Built-In Accessibility Changes Everything
What made the difference for Rory was not specialist software bolted on as an afterthought. It was the fact that accessibility features were already there, inside the same devices everyone around him was using. Zoom, larger text, VoiceOver, Live Text via the camera — these tools meant Rory could photograph a printed exam paper, upload it to his Mac, and zoom in to read the instructions independently.
He describes zooming in on a Word document for the first time as a “real game-changer.” For most people, adjusting text size is a minor preference. For Rory, it was the difference between being able to work and not being able to work at all.
His teacher put it plainly: without the Apple devices, she genuinely did not think Rory would have been able to complete his A-levels.
Seema Flower’s Perspective: Independence Has Always Been the Point
When the first iPhone came out in 2007, I had no idea how completely it would transform my world. I could not have imagined then the things I would be able to do independently — things I simply assumed I would need help with. Rory’s story captures something I understand deeply: it is not about what you have lost. It is about what becomes possible when the right tools are built with you in mind from the start.
— Seema Flower, Founder and Managing Director, Blind Ambition
Seema has been registered blind for many years. The iPhone arrived in 2007, and its built-in accessibility — particularly speech — became fundamental to how she navigates her world. The independence it enables is not a luxury. It is the foundation on which professional life, creative work, and everyday confidence are built.
The Ripple Effect: When One Person’s Adaptation Changes a Room
One of the most striking elements of Rory’s story is what happened around him. His teacher learned to ask students to show her how to do things, rather than assuming she already knew. His university classmates work alongside him, reading from his zoomed-out screen as if it were any other laptop.
Rory describes this directly: his classmates have the same accessibility features on their devices — they are just not using them. Inclusion, in practice, often looks like this. One person’s necessity becomes the wider group’s discovery.
This is the ripple effect that good accessibility creates — not just for the individual, but for every person, process and environment around them.
What This Means for Organisations Working With Blind and Partially Sighted People
Rory’s story has clear implications beyond education. For any organisation — employer, service provider, training body — the lesson is consistent: when accessibility is embedded from the ground up, blind and partially sighted people do not need workarounds. They need the same starting point as everyone else.
Where built-in accessibility is absent, organisations must fill the gap themselves. That means:
- Understanding what tools blind and partially sighted colleagues and customers are already using
- Ensuring digital content, documents, and communications work with screen readers and zoom features
- Training staff to ask rather than assume — following the Introduce, Ask, Describe, Support framework used in Blind Ambition’s programmes
- Moving from one-off awareness to embedded practice, so accessibility is not dependent on one informed individual in the room
Rory’s teacher changed her entire approach to teaching because one student showed her a better way. That kind of shift — from awareness to changed behaviour to embedded practice — is exactly what lasting inclusion requires.
It Is Not the End of the Story. It Is the Start of a New Chapter.
Rory ends Apple’s film with a line that deserves to be repeated: losing his sight “hasn’t been the end of the story. It’s just been the start of a new chapter.” That framing matters. It is not denial. It is not forced positivity. It is a clear-eyed decision to find a method and get on with it.
For organisations, the question is whether they are creating environments where that kind of determination has something to work with — or whether the barriers they have failed to remove are the thing standing in the way.
About Blind Ambition: Blind Ambition is a behaviour-change consultancy led by Seema Flower, who is registered blind. Our training goes beyond awareness to build the confidence, skills and embedded practices that create lasting change for blind and partially sighted people. To book a session: support@blindambition.co.uk | blindambition.co.uk
