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Ask to buy for special needs adults

Is anyone aware of Apple considering Special Needs adults in their Ask to Buy program? It currently cannot be enable for anyone over age 18.


Apple has done great work for people with non-cognitive disabilities. It would be great to see that work extended to adults with cognitive disabilities.


(Note: I'm writing a book about iPhone support for special needs adults, I ask this in the context of a chapter on managing app store purchases.)

Posted on Apr 23, 2017 8:45 AM

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2 replies

Apr 23, 2017 8:48 AM in response to jfaughnan

Unfortunately there's no way to digitally identify a special needs adult. The best you can do, is change the Age / Birth date for the Apple ID so they are under 18 and Ask To Buy can be enabled. Outside of that, not sure what Apple could do other than add a checkmark to the Apple ID creation to identify them which has the potential of misuse,


You can provide Apple feedback at:


http://apple.com/feedback

Apr 23, 2017 10:34 AM in response to Phil0124

Thanks, that's a thoughtful response. I did provide feedback. I think the best approach could be punted over to the Accessibility team (if/when I get my 'smartphone for all' book done I'd love to send a free copy to iOS Accessibility team).


I'm thinking it would have to be an attribute of the iCloud account. So person with control of that account would opt in as "dependent adult" (what I call an Explorer) perhaps with a pointer to an iCloud account acting in support role (what I call a "Guide"). Gets complex fast, so would want to start small. The general concept of an external support agent is core to supporting special needs adult. (One day that support agent will be an AI ...)

Ask to buy for special needs adults

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