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Herrlinger to give commencement address at DePauw
Sarah Herrlinger, director of global accessibility policy and initiatives for Apple, has accepted an invitation to give the keynote address during commencement at DePauw University.
Commencement exercises for the class of 2020 are slated for Saturday, May 17 at 10 a.m. in Holton Quadrangle.
A 1994 graduate, Herrlinger majored in religion at DePauw and was both an Honor Scholar and a Management Fellow, the first student ever accepted into both programs.
“I was fascinated with the concept of why people believe what they believe,” she said. “I grew up in a religious household, and that is still something that is important to me, but I understand that different people have different beliefs, yet they want the same thing.
“In some ways it doesn’t matter how it manifests,” she added. “There is a desire to do good in the world.”
Herrlinger earned an MBA at Stanford University in 2000 after working for an advertising agency in New York City for a time.
Herrlinger joined Apple in 2003, starting in product marketing and then moving into the education division. She then undertook trying to identify ways Apple technology could help students with disabilities to learn.
“Since I had no background in it, I was worried that I would not do it justice,” she reflected. “But I really tried to embrace it right off the bat and spent time talking to educators and going out to schools, and really quickly realized it was the most important work that I could ever do.”
After six years in this capacity, Herrlinger was named product manager for accessibility across all Apple products. She was appointed to her current position four years ago.
Through her leadership, Apple offers features in its products to support those with vision, hearing, mobility and learning disabilities.
Herrlinger said she plans to talk about how her liberal arts education helped her “build out (her) values around human rights,” as well as the importance for graduates to “lead with values.”