Two wonderful men in our community have joined forces for an incredible purpose.
Openly gay Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, and Nyle DiMarco, America's Next Top Model & Dancing with the Stars winner, teamed up on Thursday to kickoff Apple's accessible Everyone Can Code program at the California School for the Deaf (CSD) in Fremont, California. It is something that schools like CSD will start teaching to their students.
“Being here on the California School for the Deaf campus for Global Accessibility Awareness Day is really special for me,” Nyle said in a statement to PEOPLE.
“I was on track to be an educator and am a big advocate for education inclusion. The deaf students here have an amazing opportunity to learn coding which will open so many doors for them in the future. I’m excited for them that they get to experience this and that Apple is making this happen,” he said. “We didn’t have this technology when I was in school and it’s great steps to bridging both worlds, the deaf and hearing.”
The Everyone Can Code program is not limited to just students who are hard of hearing. Apple is teaming up with leading educators in both the blind and deaf communities across the United States to bring accessible coding to each of their schools.
Nyle has been an outspoken advocate for the deaf community since he became famous on ANTM, with his ability to try to champion causes including getting disability-emojis approved and so much more.
He shared a ton of videos on his Instagram stories throughout the day that showed the level of excitement these children had when Tim and him came to visit. Great job guys!
For more information on the program, click here.