How Apple Puts Indigenous Languages on the iPhone Keyboard
Apple is collaborating with Indigenous nations to integrate Native American languages into the iOS keyboard to support language revitalization efforts. The initiative involves deep research and community partnership to ensure digital accessibility for languages like Cherokee, Blackfoot, and Comanche.
Why it matters
Digital inclusion of endangered languages is a vital step in cultural preservation and ensuring that technology serves diverse linguistic communities.
“They're hearing it in our mother tongue—that didn't happen a generation ago,” Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, tells WIRED. “We're a long way, thankfully, from rote classroom instruction and memorization to a world where kids can see the sort of creativity that sparks imagination and helps every kid become more articulate and literate.”
The Cherokee Nation has around 1,500 active speakers left, and most are over 70. Hoskin Jr. says the community is rapidly losing that generation, which is why it has spent time training up second-language learners. It even has a baby immersion program, hoping their first words are Cherokee.
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