"I'm Not Remarkable. And Neither Are You": Why Apple's New Disability Film Does not Resonate with Me

I’ve been thinking about something for the last couple days, and I admit at the outset that I have gone back and forth on whether or not to write about it.

Earlier this week, Apple released a new film, “I’m Not Remarkable,” in honor of International Day of Persons with Disabilities. While I think the film is a groundbreaking work of creative disability expression, I have some concerns about its use as corporate messaging from a company with Apple’s influence and reach.

Being blind, I do not engage much with videos and other visual content; as I have found that even with audio description, I do not get very much out of it. And yet, I found myself watching Apple’s latest film, reading the Descriptive Text Transcript (which provides a wealth of visual and auditory information that viewers with disabilities might otherwise miss), and soon singing the song from the video absent-mindedly as I went about my day.

The film features several college students with disabilities and shows how they use Apple products and their built-in accessibility features to get the full college experience—both in and outside of the classroom. Knowing firsthand how empowering Apple products are for me personally, I love seeing how other people have life-changing access thanks to Apple’s work. The song included in the video, performed by deaf and disabled students from around the world, is also very well done.

As personal expression and disability art, Apple’s film checks all the boxes: it was developed in close partnership with people with disabilities; the disability representation is authentic and real; and it breaks down barriers and shatters stereotypes about disability in a way that only reality can.

And yet, there is something small but profound about the film that really bothers me, and it all has to do with one particular line in the song that is central to the video—and how that line lands as corporate messaging from a company with an influential platform like Apple's.

Before I go any further, I want to make it very clear that my criticism is absolutely not with any of the students/performers featured in the video. Everyone experiences and navigates disability differently, and how people talk about disability varies from person to person. There is a saying that goes something like, “If you’ve met one disabled person, you’ve met one disabled person,” and that definitely applies here. And it is not for me, under any circumstances, to publicly critique how other people talk about their disability and lived experiences.

At the same time, “I’m Not Remarkable” isn’t just creative disability expression; it is also corporate messaging, serving as an advertisement for Apple’s products. And as advertising and messaging, I view the film very differently and it is this upon which my criticism is based.

Multiple times in the song( of the same name) in the film, the performers sing this line:

I’m not remarkable. And neither are you.

Did you catch that?

I’m not remarkable. And neither are you.

The first couple times I watched the film, that line didn’t register. The next time I played the video, I did a double-take. I could not believe that this was what I was hearing in a film created by... Apple, a company with a long-standing and demonstrated commitment to the disability community. Just to be sure I was really hearing what I thought I was, I went back and played it again (and checked the descriptive text transcript):

I’m not remarkable. And neither are you.

Sung to a catchy tune that stays in the mind for days.

I fully appreciate that, for many people with disabilities, this line is an essential part of how they understand and share their experiences. Often, especially for those unfamiliar with disability, non-disabled people react to disabled people doing ordinary things by thinking or saying it is inspirational. If you’ve ever seen or heard about a person with a disability doing some everyday thing that you take for granted—say, a blind person crossing the street without assistance—and thought something like, “That is so cool!” you’ll know what I mean. Getting up in the morning? “That’s so inspirational!” Going to work well-dressed and with a good personal appearance? “I don't know how you do that!”

While this type of reaction from non-disabled people doesn’t personally bother me (and I am absolutely okay with using my lived experience with blindness and take on life to bring hope and joy to others), many people with disabilities find the ‘inspiration’ angle to be profoundly offensive for any number of reasons. And the film tackles this head-on. People with disabilities doing ordinary activities—going to college, taking chemistry, making music, going to sporting events and parties—are just that: people with disabilities living life to the fullest and doing ordinary things, just like everyone else.

And yet, when taken as corporate messaging, that line still troubles me. It doesn’t talk about the various things the students are doing in the film as unremarkable; it is squarely in ‘I statement’ territory. We could have had, “It’s Not Remarkable, I’m just living my life,” (I sang it, and it works); instead, we got “I’m not remarkable, and neither are you.” The former is a statement about the activity not being remarkable. The latter is a statement about the person and the listener. There is a subtle but important difference.

As a child growing up blind, I struggled for years with anxiety, depression, and very low self-esteem; and “I’m not remarkable, and neither are you” sounds very similar to the type of self-deprecating things I said to and about myself during that time of my life. While the statements are not exactly the same, they both subconsciously try to diminish who I am and the value and worth that I have. It took years of therapy, and even more patience and love from my family and friends, before I finally began to feel comfortable with who I am and my life as a blind man. I wouldn’t wish my past experiences on anyone else, and I don’t want to go back.

I fully expect that my opinion will not be very popular—and I am okay with that. Outrage sells, and the internet can bring out the absolute worst in us. I also want to say unequivocally that I think very highly of Apple’s Accessibility Team and the work that they do. In everything I have seen and experienced, Apple’s Accessibility Team has shown themselves to be a group of very dedicated people who are genuinely trying to make the world a better place for people with disabilities. I have no doubt that Apple’s team poured their hearts into “I’m Not Remarkable,” and I fully believe that the way I received the film was absolutely not the way that it was intended. This point is important, and my critique of Apple in this situation should not be taken a la carte.

Having said all of that, Apple sets the tone that everyone else in the industry follows, and words matter.

At the end of the film, the performers sing this line:

I’m only remarkable because everybody is.

And this, I think, is what should have been emphasized all along. No one is better than any other. Every person is wonderfully and beautifully created, enough just as they are, infinitely special and remarkable in their own way. People with disabilities living life to the fullest and doing ordinary things are just that: people with disabilities living life to the fullest and doing ordinary things, just like everyone else. Rather than minimizing our differences, we should celebrate what makes each of us unique and wonderfully beautiful.