Isaac’s Little Movie Player
A veteran designer for HoloLens, Apple, Google Earth, Second Life, and Disney VR is making an iPad app for his autistic son
Leaving my full-time job at Apple was a hard choice, but the biggest benefit of returning to independent life was finally having more time to spend with and for my kids. It sounds like a bit of a cliché, but after two years of talking about it, I finally built a train table for my younger son, and I finally wrote this iPad app for my older son.
Isaac is autistic and, at age 12, still nonverbal. Experts advise that if autistic kids don’t start speaking by around age eight, they may never. So we’ve helped him learn how to use an iPad and press buttons to speak for him. He’s been doing that for about six years now and is steadily making progress.
But it’s one thing for Isaac to ask for things he wants or to say thank you, as appropriate. My deeper hope is that he’ll learn to read and write complex thoughts as well as anyone his age and unlock a whole new way to share his inner world.
Isaac loves all kinds of puzzles, as well as iPad games where he has to drag and drop letters or words in place to trigger animations. He also loves 3D animated movies (especially those by Pixar, Dreamworks, and Sony). Even at a young age…
