Special Education Needs use of iPad - no fingerprint or 4 digit code? Pitfalls?

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Special Education Needs use of iPad - no fingerprint or 4 digit code? Pitfalls?

We have an adult son with Special Educational Needs who lives three hours away from us in a facility which caters for his needs - He has no language and would struggle with passcodes and fingerprints. He has many carers too. We have a home sharing subscription to Apple Cloud+, Music and Disney+ - he loves music and Disney animations.

We want to buy him an iPad 9th Gen and 64GB storage with just Wi-Fi, so that he can watch saved films and stream others and listen to his favourite music, we get to see him for weekends once a month so we can load up the device with movies and save his favourite styles of classical music.

Where we struggle on this decision is with access security to the device. My concern is that anyone with access to an unsecured device could see the Disney+ password and any other passwords we would need to save in the password manager on his iPad.

An iPad Pro with facial recognition would work but is frankly beyond our means, there are about 15 staff at his facility working shifts who would support him, about half change every 6 months so getting a fingerprint from them all would be challenging and trying to give them a single passcode which they will all remember would be a challenge too.

Any ideas on the set up, passcodes, fingerprints or none, can/should you use with no security at all?

Posted on Nov 22, 2022 03:59 AM

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Answer 1

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LotusPilot

Community+ 2025

Level 10

299,648 points

Nov 22, 2022 04:56 AM in response to stevetwood

Much of an iPad’s advanced functionality simply won’t work unless a Passcode has been initially set - such as TouchID/FaceID and Keychain stored passwords - and for this reason alone, having to initially set a Passcode, even if subsequently disabled, may be necessary for some functions. Also be aware that TouchID can only store a limited number of fingerprints (five?); FaceID can only store a single identity (iPhone can store two).

It may be worthwhile for you to directly contact Apple Support - and ask to speak with an Accessibility Specialist. Apple have a team dedicated to offering support for various accessibility issues. They will be able to offer help and support with suggestions and specific settings for users with difficulties with disabilities and special needs.

You can contact Apple Support using the Support link at top-right or bottom-left of this page. Alternatively, assuming that you have an Apple device to hand, you can initiate contact or open a support case using the excellent Apple Support App. If not already installed, the App can be downloaded from the App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/apple-support/id1130498044

As for your choice of iPad, this may indeed be the most appropriate for your need, but carefully consider the relative merit of more internal storage. While the 64GB model may be suitable for streaming, you may struggle with stored video. It is better to have more internal storage than you need, than to need more than you have - the latter leading to endless frustration when your needs exceed available storage.

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Answer 2

Nov 22, 2022 04:45 PM in response to stevetwood

The only pitfall that I can foresee is support by the Carer Team - who may require knowledge of the iPad Passcode - which will effectively bypass TouchID/FaceID.

Otherwise, I would suggest that you also set a ScreenTime Passcode that is entirely different to the iPad lock-screen Passcode - keeping the ScreenTime Passcode known only to you. The ScreenTime Passcode adds an additional level of protection for this category of settings; with the two Passcodes being different, knowledge of the lock Passcode will not provide access to ScreenTime restriction settings.

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Answer 3

stevetwood Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 22, 2022 07:39 AM in response to stevetwood

Thank you LotusPilot, that was very helpful. I took your advice and spoke with Apple Support just now. They were very helpful and they suggested the following which I am going to investigate further on my iPad next.

Setup the new iPad with mine/wife's existing AppleID for our son, or create a new ID which we would control.

Create a passcode and fingerprints which my wife and I would set.

Use Apple Screen Time to restrict access to family sharing applications such as Apple Music and Disney+ subscriptions.

Turn off passcode to access our son's iPad

Any comments against this plan?

Thanks and Regards

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Answer 4

stevetwood Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 23, 2022 01:51 AM in response to LotusPilot

Thanks LotusPilot,

Apologies, but just to be clear. When I first set up this new iPad, can I create an initial entry into the iPad passcode, then set up a different Screen Time passcode and then remove the need for an initial entry passcode into the iPad and I am assuming that the Screen Time passcode will remain in place?

Thanks in advance.

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Special Education Needs use of iPad - no fingerprint or 4 digit code? Pitfalls?

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