Apple's new short film starring autistic teen shows how tech transforms lives

Dillan Barmache can’t speak, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anything to say.

In fact, Dillan has complex and powerful thoughts, and thanks to easily accessible technology paired with innovative apps, you can hear his perspective.

Dillan, who is autistic and nonverbal, is the star of a new short film created by Apple to celebrate Autism Acceptance Day. Notably, the film tells Dillan’s story through his own words, typed out on an iPad then spoken out loud via an augmented and alternative communication (AAC) app.

The film, called Dillan's Voice, is an important departure from the way many non-autistic people often think of autistic individuals, especially those who are nonverbal. People on the autism spectrum aren’t always given agency or control over their own narratives -- their stories are often filtered through well-meaning family members and caregivers looking to spread awareness.

But Dillan, like most 16-year-olds, is a teen with a lot of thoughts to express -- and he can say them all. He just uses a tool to help.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Dillan has been using an iPad as a communication tool for about three years. His use of the technology actually went viral in 2014, after he used his tablet and an AAC app to deliver a moving middle school graduation speech.

Over the past three years, the technology has become an essential part of Dillan’s daily life -- whether it's at school, socializing or simply talking with his mother, Tami Barmache. But, prior to the tablet’s presence in his life, Dillan says he spent much of his younger years struggling to connect with people.

“So many people can’t understand I have a mind. All they see is a person who is not in control.”

Conventional means of speaking -- moving your mouth and activating your vocal chords in complicated ways to produce standard sounds that others can understand -- was impossible for him.

"So many people can’t understand I have a mind,” Dillan says in the film. "All they see is a person who is not in control."

But Dillan says that the use of his tablet and AAC apps has helped him not only "see" his words, but hold onto his thoughts. And it's made an incredible impact on Dillan’s life.

"At school, I now can have a conversation,” he tells Mashable via email. "I can share [answers to questions] with my classmates to amaze them that this totally awkward and sometimes strange guy is as smart as they are."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Before Dillan started using an iPad to communicate, his mother says she often had a hard time figuring out what he was thinking or feeling with accuracy and certainty. But now communication barriers have lessened with the help of Dillan’s tablet, something his mother calls life-changing.

“Hearing Dillan’s voice is incredible,” Tami says in a behind-the-scenes video called Dillan's Path, below. "He’s insightful and smart and creative."

"Hearing Dillan’s voice is incredible. He’s insightful and smart and creative."

Although he sees himself as sometimes awkward and strange, Dillan is undoubtedly eloquent and thoughtful. And he is using his skills with words to claim his own story for himself, telling it with bold honesty.

Dillan, for one, knows how he is perceived by those who don’t understand autism. The real him, he says, is hidden from them behind "autism’s noticeable movements and noises," making him appear to others as strange and unfamiliar.

"Attitudes last," Dillan tells Mashable. "And the ones about a very misunderstood and often hard-to-explain condition have placed all autistic people in a hidden world, sometimes never to be heard from."

But with the help of his iPad, Dillan says he has been freed from the perceptions that have previously clouded people’s views of him.

"The iPad allows me to be seen," he puts it simply.

Apple believes the use of its products in this way -- as a tool that Dillan and people with similar experiences value as life-shifting technology -- is something the company considers powerful. 

“The iPad allows me to be seen.”

“For Apple, accessibility is about empowering everyone to use our technology to be creative, productive and independent,” Sarah Herrlinger, senior manager for global accessibility policy and initiatives at Apple, tells Mashable. “Dillan’s message is powerful, and we are grateful the iPad and apps are playing such an impactful role in his life.”

And that empowerment is essential. At one particularly jarring and raw portion of the behind-the-scenes film, Dillan describes having autism as like "being in hell" and a "lonely existence." But he says using the iPad as a tool has helped alleviate some of those feelings by amplifying his voice.

“I get to have conversations, and have people dear to me see and hear the person I am,” he says. “Having that makes anyone’s life less lonely, right?”

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