New Apple ad highlights sports and accessibility features

Apple has released a new ad called The Relay, featuring eight athletes with and without disabilities training and competing side-by-side.

This ad is directed by Derek Cianfrance, who is known for the movies Blue Valentine and Sound of Metal; the latter is notable for also shining a unique light on musicians with hearing impairments. The movie was also nominated for six Oscars and won two.

The Relay cast includes high-level competitive athletes from around the globe, some of whom will compete in the Los Angeles 2028 games.

You can also see athletes in the ad using Spoken Content to navigate their phone, and AssistiveTouch on Apple Watch to control it without touching the screen. Other Assistive features include Magnifier plus Point and Speak which lets people with low vision more efficiently navigate their phones. The video also shows off wheelchair workouts which lets Wheelchair users more accurately track their workouts with variable paces.

Apple also shared that in the fall, even more accessibility features will be launching with its fall updates, including vocal shortcuts, music haptics and eye tracking. Eye tracking is a feature that’s made its way over from the Vision Pro and it worked surprisingly well in a brief test with the iPadOS beta.