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VoiceOver and limited vision approaches for custom stepper control
I have a product for designing particle emitters, which I suspect may be of limited interest to people with limited vision. I'd still like to ensure I'm doing a good job with VoiceOver mode. There's a related, simplified sample online, if you want to look at the code As you can see from the picture below, a large part of the interface mimics Xcode's particle editor, with many value entry controls that combine up/down buttons with a tappable label. Tapping the label goes into edit mode. Apart from changing how labels are stepped through in voiceover in my app, how should I handle these stepper buttons? Is this a good place to use a Custom Rotor?
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Jun ’25
Unable to Add Accessibility Trait to UISegmentedControl
I’m trying to add the .header accessibility trait to a UISegmentedControl so that VoiceOver recognizes it accordingly. However, setting the trait using the following code doesn’t seem to have any effect: segmentControl.accessibilityTraits = segmentControl.accessibilityTraits.union(.header) Even after applying this, VoiceOver doesn’t announce it as a header. Is there any workaround or recommended approach to achieve this?
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Mar ’25
iPhone screen layers
I need to understand the different layers that are there in the iPhone X and later OLED screens as I am designing a hardware attachment. They seem to be projecting letters and images from a different layer than the subpixel layer. Is this proprietary information, or is there a resource that explores them?
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Apr ’25
IOS18 Crash
At present, in iOS, if using the in-house app, there may be crashes in the new iOS 18.3 and later versions, but it works normally on other phones and the certificate is not problematic. A total of 3 machines were found, and there was no pattern between the machines and the system, with different models and versions. We tested it on a machine that crashes, but the app downloaded from the store doesn't. If the same app is packaged and installed directly in the development tool, it will crash. Is this related to compatibility with the new version of IOS? Is there a solution? Do others also have relevant situations?
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Jun ’25
VoiceOver accessibility issue in UIKit for line granularity
Context: We are using UIKit to provide accessibility in our app for our iOS users. Our app majorly contains documents/books that user can read. Issue: The issue is VoiceOver is skipping the lines given to it when there are some leading spaces in it. We have observed this issue in different languages. This is only happening for line granularity, other granularities seems to be working as expected. Implementation: We are using below API's to provide line content to voice over. UIAccessibilityReadingContent - accessibilityPageContent - accessibilityFrameForLineNumber - accessibilityContentForLineNumber We are creating UIAccessibilityElement objects to pass to VoiceOver and each UIAccessibilityElement implements UIAccessibilityReadingContent to provide readable content. We also use below APIs to cross element boundaries for all granular navigations. accessibilityNextTextNavigationElement accessibilityPreviousTextNavigationElement We want to know whether skipping the line when provided with leading spaces is expected or a bug in UIKit.
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Nov ’25
Using WebSocket for BCI Click Input in VisionOS - FocusState vs. System-Level Limitations
Hi everyone, My team and I are developing an accessibility-focused VisionOS app (MindTap) as part of a university project, aiming to support individuals with Locked-In Syndrome using Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) signals to trigger interactions (e.g., tapping) within the Apple Vision Pro environment. Problem 1: Simulating Eye Tracking in Simulator We are testing onHover with Send pointer to the device under I/O > Input in the simulator, and while it mostly works (a bit laggy), we found that onHover won't function on the actual Vision Pro hardware. From what I understand, we should be using FocusState for proper gaze interaction, but testing this requires the physical device. Is there any workaround or official Apple-recommended way to simulate Focus-based gaze detection without a real Vision Pro? Problem 2: WebSocket-triggered "Click" doesn't work outside the app We successfully use WebSocket to send a custom signal (a "1" from the brain signal device) to trigger an action inside our app. However, when the user opens a third-party app like Apple News, the WebSocket-triggered "click" no longer works. We suspect this is due to sandbox restrictions or lack of system-level permissions. Is it possible in anyway to: Trigger interaction events outside the app using custom input (like BCI via Websocket)? Access system-wide click/tap simulation APIs from within VisionOS apps Integrate this with accessibility services (like Voice Control or AssistiveTouch) We'd appreciate any official guidance or tips from others building similar accessibility apps with alternative input methods in VisionOS. Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide!
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Apr ’25
"illegal character encoding in string literal" warnings in Xcode
Good day! I have a long-term project ported all the way up from old Think C through many versions of Xcode. Its source files are encoded in "Western (Mac OS Roman)". Some of my error messages have characters outside the straight ASCII character set (i.e. "å"). The editor correctly displays these, but I get plenty of Illegal Character warnings and the messages do not display properly. I imagine there's a way to have seperate files of localized text for internationalized applications, but I am the only end-user of this application, and it used to just plain work in earlier Xcode versions. Furthermore, there must be developers throughout Europe who use such characters in string literals, just typing in their native languages, straight off their keyboards. I was thinking that there must be a Clang setting or something, but have been unable to find it, and an internet search turns up no solution except to cumbersomely escape each individual character. I can't imagine that a French programmer does that every time they want to type "è", "é", or "à"! Any help? (Disclaimer: I'm an English speaker and only use such characters whimsically, but want to keep them for legacy's sake.) Thanks.... p.s. using Xcode 15.3, and under Settings->Text Editing->Editing, "Western (Mac OS Roman)" is already selected as the default text encoding with "Convert existing files on save" checked.
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Jun ’25
Accessibility Issue - Date Picker Colour Contrast
In SwiftUI, the date picker component is breaking in colour contrast accessibility. Below code has been use to create date picker: struct ContentView: View { @State private var date = Date() @State private var selectedDate: Date = .init() var body: some View { let min = Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .day, value: 14, to: Date()) ?? Date() let max = Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .year, value: 4, to: Date()) ?? Date() DatePicker( "Start Date", selection: $date, in: min ... max, displayedComponents: [.date] ) .datePickerStyle(.graphical) .frame(alignment: .topLeading) .onAppear { selectedDate = Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .day, value: 14, to: Date()) ?? Date() } } } #Preview { ContentView() } attaching the screenshot of failure accessibility.
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Mar ’25
accessibilityRespondsToUserInteraction return true on Simulator but false on device
I am seeing a strange issue where NSObject accessibilityRespondsToUserInteraction returns true on Simulator but false on device. Checking the same object on simulator with Accessibility inspector I see the object traits as image so why would it return true in that case? Are there any other way to check the the item might be accessibilityRespondsToUserInteraction OR Clickable beside that property and traits? (Or is it just another bug)
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Jun ’25
How to handle AX (Keyboard Access & VoiceOver) for AttributedString used in UILabel
I use AttributedString to create a string containing a link. And I set the AttributedString to UILabel. How should I set up the Accessibility feature to make sure that I can keyboard focus on the substring with link and use keyboard operation to open the link I can VoiceOver the whole string and VoiceOver the substring with link to open the link Thanks a lot.
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Mar ’25
What is the appropriate accessibility trait for selectable UITableViewCell?
I’m trying to understand the best practice for assigning accessibilityTraits to a UITableViewCell that users can select from a list of options. In Apple’s first-party apps like Settings, I’ve noticed an inconsistent approach—some cells use the Button trait, while others simply announce the label along with the Selected trait when applicable, without any additional role like Button or Adjustable. So my question is: What is the most appropriate accessibility trait to use for a selectable table view cell that updates a selection (like a settings option)? Is using .button the right approach, or should we rely solely on .selected? Is there any user experience guideline from Apple that recommends one over the other? Would love to hear how others handle this for clarity and consistency in VoiceOver behavior.
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Apr ’25
External Keyboard + Voiceover focus not working with .searchable + List
While editing the search text using the external keyboard (with VoiceOver on), if I try to navigate the to List using the keyboard, the focus jumps back to the search field immediately, preventing selection of list items. It's important to note that the voiceover navigation alone without a keyboard works as expected. It’s as if the List never gains focus—every attempt to move focus lands back on the search field. The code: struct ContentView: View { @State var searchText = "" let items = ["Apple", "Banana", "Cherry", "Date", "Elderberry", "Fig", "Grape"] var filteredItems: [String] { if searchText.isEmpty { return items } else { return items.filter { $0.localizedCaseInsensitiveContains(searchText) } } } var body: some View { if #available(iOS 16.0, *) { NavigationStack { List(filteredItems, id: \.self) { item in Text(item) } .navigationTitle("Fruits") .searchable(text: $searchText) } } else { NavigationView { List(filteredItems, id: \.self) { item in Text(item) } .navigationTitle("Fruits") .searchable(text: $searchText) } } } }
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Jun ’25
App Store Connect – “Unable to Handle This Request” Error
Hello, I'm currently unable to access App Store Connect. When I try to open https://appstoreconnect.apple.com, I receive the following error message: “appstoreconnect.apple.com is currently unable to handle this request.” I’ve tried the following steps, but the issue persists: Cleared browser cache and cookies Tried different browsers (Safari, Chrome) Attempted from multiple devices and networks Is this a known issue or is there any workaround available? Would appreciate any help or update on the current status. Thank you,
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Jun ’25
AXSpeech Thread Crash SEGV_ACCERR
Hi everyone, I've encountered a rare and strange crash in my app that I can't consistently reproduce. The crash seems to occur deep within Apple's internal frameworks, and I can't pinpoint which line of my own code is causing it. Here's the crash stack trace: #44 AXSpeech SIGSEGV SEGV_ACCERR 0 CoreFoundation ___CFCheckCFInfoPACSignature + 4 1 CoreFoundation _CFRunLoopSourceSignal + 28 2 Foundation _performQueueDequeue + 492 3 Foundation ___NSThreadPerformPerform + 88 4 CoreFoundation ___CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE0_PERFORM_FUNCTION__ + 28 5 CoreFoundation ___CFRunLoopDoSource0 + 176 6 CoreFoundation ___CFRunLoopDoSources0 + 340 7 CoreFoundation ___CFRunLoopRun + 828 8 CoreFoundation _CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 608 9 Foundation -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) runMode:beforeDate:] + 212 10 TextToSpeech _TTSCFAttributedStringCreateStringByBracketingAttributeWithString + 776 11 Foundation ___NSThread__start__ + 732 12 libsystem_pthread.dylib __pthread_start + 136 Sometimes, instead of line 10 referencing _TTSCFAttributedStringCreateStringByBracketingAttributeWithString, it shows: 10 TextToSpeech LogWarning(char const*, ...) + 7288 Has anyone experienced a similar issue or know what might be triggering this crash? Any guidance on how to investigate or resolve this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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Jun ’25
How to use core spotlight ?
Watched videos, blog post and downloaded their projects and there the core spot lights works accordingly. I copied code to an empty project and did the same as what they did but still is not working os: macOS and iOS on coredataobject I settled up a attribute to index for spotlight and in object it self I putted the attribute name in display name for spotlight. static let shared = PersistenceController() var spotlightDelegate: NSCoreDataCoreSpotlightDelegate? @MainActor static let preview: PersistenceController = { let result = PersistenceController(inMemory: true) let viewContext = result.container.viewContext for _ in 0..<10 { let newItem = Item(context: viewContext) newItem.timestamp = Date() } do { try viewContext.save() } catch { let nsError = error as NSError fatalError("Unresolved error \(nsError), \(nsError.userInfo)") } return result }() let container: NSPersistentContainer init(inMemory: Bool = false) { container = NSPersistentContainer(name: "SpotLightSearchTest") if inMemory { container.persistentStoreDescriptions.first!.url = URL(fileURLWithPath: "/dev/null") } container.loadPersistentStores(completionHandler: { [weak self] (storeDescription, error) in if let error = error as NSError? { fatalError("Unresolved error \(error), \(error.userInfo)") } if let description = self?.container.persistentStoreDescriptions.first { description.setOption(true as NSNumber, forKey: NSPersistentHistoryTrackingKey) description.type = NSSQLiteStoreType if let coordinator = self?.container.persistentStoreCoordinator { self?.spotlightDelegate = NSCoreDataCoreSpotlightDelegate( forStoreWith: description, coordinator: coordinator ) self?.spotlightDelegate?.startSpotlightIndexing() } } }) container.viewContext.automaticallyMergesChangesFromParent = true } } in my @main view struct SpotLightSearchTestApp: App { let persistenceController = PersistenceController.shared var body: some Scene { WindowGroup { ContentView() .environment(\.managedObjectContext, persistenceController.container.viewContext) .onContinueUserActivity(CSSearchableItemActionType) {_ in print("") } } } } onContinueUserActivity(CSSearchableItemActionType) {_ in print("") } never gets triggered. Sow What am I missing that they dont explain in the blog post or videos ?
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Mar ’25
Verifying braille output in an iOS app without a physical braille device?
I'm developing a calculator app and working to ensure a great experience for both VoiceOver and Braille display users. For expressions like (2+3)×5, I need two different accessibility outputs: VoiceOver (spoken): A descriptive string like “left paren two plus three right paren times five,” provided via .accessibilityValue. I'm using a custom spellOut function since VoiceOver doesn't announce parentheses—which are kind of important when doing math! Braille (symbolic): The literal math string (2+3)×5, provided using .accessibilityCustomContent("", ...), with an empty label so it’s not spoken aloud. The issue: I don’t have access to a Braille display device and Xcode’s Accessibility Inspector doesn’t seem to show the custom content. Is there any way to confirm that custom Braille content is being set correctly in Simulator or with other tools? Or…is there a "math mode" in VoiceOver that forces it to announce parentheses? Any advice or workarounds would be much appreciated! Thanks, Uhl
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Jul ’25