Video examples

iOS Voiceover

Android Talkback

iOS

Developer notes

  • Initial screen reader focus can be on the entire tidbit and announce everything with or without a CTA. Or, the text and CTA can have separate focus.
  • Meaningful images should have an accessibility label

Name

  • Programmatic name describes the purpose of the control (if CTA is available)
  • If visible text label exists, the programmatic name should match the visible text label.
    • Note: Setting a programmatic name while a visible text label exists may cause VoiceOver to duplicate the announcement of the name. If this happens, hide the visible text label from VoiceOver recognition.
  • UIKit
    • You can programmatically set the visible label with setTitle().
      • The _component title will overwrite the _component accessibilityLabel.
    • If a visible label is not applicable in this case, set the _component accessibilityLabel to the label of your choice.
      • To do this in Interface Builder, set the label using the Identity Inspector
    • To hide labels from VoiceOver programmatically, set the label’s isAccessibilityElement property to false
    • To hide labels from VoiceOver using Interface Builder, uncheck Accessibility Enabled in the Identity Inspector.
  • SwiftUI
    • If no visible label, use view modifier accessibilityLabel(_:).

Role

  • Please use guidance for the Button control if a CTA is applicable

Groupings

  • Group visible label with button, if applicable, to provide a programmatic name for the button.

  • UIKit
    1. Ensure that the child elements of the overarching view you want to group in has their isAccessibilityElement properties set to false.
    2. Set isAccessibilityElement to true for the parent view. Then, adjust accessibilityLabel and accessibilityTraits accordingly.
      • If frame does not exist due to custom button, use accessibilityFrameInContainer to set the custom control’s frame to the parent view’s container or view of your choice.
        • You can also unionize two frames with frame.union (i.e. titleLabel.frame.union(subtitleLabel.frame)).
      • Use shouldGroupAccessibilityElement for a precise order if the native order should be disrupted.
      • Use shouldGroupAccessibilityChildren to indicate whether VoiceOver must group its children views. This allows making unique vocalizations or define a particular reading order for a part of the page.
  • SwiftUI
    • Use view modifier accessibilityElement(children: .combine) to merge the child accessibility element’s properties into the new accessibilityElement.

State

  • UIKit
    • For enabled: Set isEnabled to true.
    • For disabled: Set isEnabled to false. Announcement for disabled is “Dimmed”.
      • If necessary, you may change the accessibility trait of the _component to notEnabled, but this may overwrite the current accessibility role of the _component.
  • SwiftUI
    • For selected, use accessibilityAddTraits(.isSelected).
    • For disabled, use view modifier disabled().

Focus

  • Use the device’s default focus functionality.

  • External keyboard tab order often follows the screen reader focus, but sometimes this functionality requires additional development to manage focus.

  • UIKit
    • If VoiceOver is not reaching a particular element, set the element’s isAccessibilityElement to true
      • Note: You may need to adjust the programmatic name, role, state, and/or value after doing this, as this action may overwrite previously configured accessibility.
    • Use accessibilityViewIsModal to contain the screen reader focus inside the modal.
    • To move screen reader focus to newly revealed content, use UIAccessibility.post(notification:argument:) that takes in .screenChanged and the newly revealed content as the parameter arguments.
    • To NOT move focus, but dynamically announce new content: use UIAccessibility.post(notification:argument:) that takes in .announcement and the announcement text as the parameter arguments.
    • UIAccessibilityContainer protocol: Have a table of elements that defines the reading order of the elements.
  • SwiftUI
    • For general focus management that impacts both screen readers and non-screen readers, use the property wrapper @FocusState to assign an identity of a focus state.
      • Use the property wrapper @FocusState in conjunction with the view modifier focused(_:) to assign focus on a view with @FocusState as the source of truth.
      • Use the property wrapper @FocusStatein conjunction with the view modifier focused(_:equals:) to assign focus on a view, when the view is equal to a specific value.
    • If necessary, use property wrapper @AccessibilityFocusState to assign identifiers to specific views to manually shift focus from one view to another as the user interacts with the screen with VoiceOver on.

Announcement examples

  • “Important” (Exclamation point image) (grouped with text)
  • All text is announced
  • “Learn more, button” (Learn more CTA)

Android

Developer notes

  • Initial screen reader focus can be on the entire tidbit and announce everything with or without a CTA. Or, the text and CTA can have separate focus.
  • Meaningful images should have an accessibility label

Name

  • Name describes the purpose of the control

  • Programmatic name matches the visible text label (if any)

  • Android Views
    • android:text XML attribute
    • Optional: use contentDescription for a more descriptive name, depending on type of view and for elements (icons) without a visible label
    • contentDescription overrides android:text
    • Use labelFor attribute to associate the visible label with the control
  • Jetpack Compose
    • Compose uses semantics properties to pass information to accessibility services.
    • Example specification of contentDescription in compose: modifier = Modifier.semantics { contentDescription = "" }

Role

  • Please use guidance for the Button control if a CTA is applicable

Groupings

  • Group visible label with button, if applicable, to provide a programmatic name for the button.

  • Android Views
    • ViewGroup
    • Set the container object’s android:screenReaderFocusable attribute to true, and each inner object’s android:focusable attribute to false. In doing so, accessibility services can present the inner elements’ contentDescription or names, one after the other, in a single announcement.
  • Jetpack Compose
    • Modifier.semantics(mergeDescendants = true) {} is equivalent to importantForAccessibility when compared to android views
    • FocusRequester.createRefs() helps to request focus to inner elements with in the group

State

  • Android Views
    • Active: android:enabled=true
    • Disabled: android:enabled=false. Announcement: disabled
  • Jetpack Compose
    • Active: default state is active and enabled. Use Button(enabled = true) to specify explicitly
    • Disabled: Button(enabled = false) announces as disabled
    • Alternatively can use modifier = Modifier.semantics { disabled() } to announce as disabled
    • Use modifier = Modifier.semantics { stateDescription = "" } to have a customized state announcement

Focus

  • Only manage focus when needed. Primarily, let the device manage default focus

  • External keyboard tab order often follows the screen reader focus, but sometimes needs focus management

  • Android Views
    • importantForAccessibility makes the element visible to the Accessibility API
    • android:focusable
    • android=clickable
    • Implement an onClick( ) event handler for keyboard, as well as onTouch( )
    • nextFocusDown
    • nextFocusUp
    • nextFocusRight
    • nextFocusLeft
    • accessibilityTraversalBefore (or after)
    • To move screen reader focus to newly revealed content: Type_View_Focused
    • To NOT move focus, but dynamically announce new content: accessibilityLiveRegion(set to polite or assertive)
    • To hide controls: importantForAccessibility=false
    • For a ViewGroup, set screenReaderFocusable=true and each inner object’s attribute to keyboard focus (focusable=false)
  • Jetpack Compose
    • Modifier.focusTarget() makes the component focusable
    • Modifier.focusOrder() needs to be used in combination with FocusRequesters to define focus order
    • Modifier.onFocusEvent(), Modifier.onFocusChanged() can be used to observe the changes to focus state
    • FocusRequester allows to request focus to individual elements with in a group of merged descendant views
    • Example: To customize the focus events
      • step 1: define the focus requester prior. val (first, second) = FocusRequester.createRefs()
      • step 2: update the modifier to set the order. modifier = Modifier.focusOrder(first) { this.down = second }
      • focus order accepts following values: up, down, left, right, previous, next, start, end
      • step 3: use second.requestFocus() to gain focus

Announcement examples

  • “Important” (Exclamation point image) (grouped with text)
  • All text is announced
  • “Learn more, button, double tap to activate” (Learn more CTA)