Hi,
I'm trying to fix tvOS view for VoiceOver accessibility feature:
TabView { // 5 tabs
Text(title)
Button(play)
ScrollView { // Live
LazyHStack { 200 items }
}
ScrollView { // Continue watching
LazyHStack { 500 items }
}
}
When the view shows up VoiceOver reads:
"Home tab 1 of 5, Item 2" - not sure why it reads Item 2 of the first cell in scroll view, maybe beacause it just got loaded by LazyHStack.
VocieOver should only read "Home tab 1 of 5"
When moving focus to scroll view it reads:
"Live, Item 1" and after slight delay "Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, Item 4"
When moving focus to second item it reads:
"Item 2" and after slight delay "Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, Item 4"
When moving focus to third item it reads:
"Item 3" and after slight delay "Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, Item 4"
It should be just reading what is focused, idealy just
"Live, Item 1, 1 of 200"
then after moving focus on item 2
"Item 2, 2 of 200"
this time without the word "Live" because we are on the same scroll view (the same horizontal list)
Currently the app is unusable, we have visually impaired testers and this rotor reading everything on the screen is totaly confusing, because users don't know where they are and what is actually focused.
This is a video streaming app and we are streaming all the time, even on home page in background, binge plays one item after another, usually there is never ending Live stream playing, user can switch TV channel, but we continue to play. Voice over should only read what's focused after user interaction.
Original Apple TV app does not do that, so it cannot be caused by some verbose accessibility settings. It reads correctly only focused item in scrolling lists.
How do I disable reading content that is not focused?
I tried:
.accessibilityLabel(isFocused ? title : "")
.accessibilityHidden(!isFocused)
.accessibilityHidden(true) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy
.accessiblityElement(children: .ignore) - even focused item is not read back by voice over
.accessiblityElement(children: .ignore) - even focused item is not read back by voice over
.accessiblityElement(children: .contain) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy
.accessiblityElement(children: .combine) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy
.accessibilityAddTraits(.isHeader) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy
.accessibilityRemoveTraits(.isHeader) - tried on various levels in view hierarchy
// the last 2 was basically an attempt to hack it
.accessibilityRotor("", ranges []) - another hack that I tried on ScrollView, LazyHStack, also on top level view.
50+ other attempts at configuring accessibility tags attached to views.
I have seen all the accessibility videos, tried all sample code projects, I haven't found a solution anywhere, internet search didn't find anything, AI didn't help as it can only provide code that someone else wrote before.
Any idea how to fix this?
Thanks.
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When VoiceOver reads decimal numbers with six or more digits after the decimal, it stops announcing the decimal separator and also adds pauses between each digit.
Text("0.12345") // VoiceOver: "zero **point** one two three four five"
Text("0.123456") // VoiceOver: "zero one, two, three, four, five, six"
How can I force VoiceOver to announce the decimal separator ("point") and not insert pauses regardless of the number of decimal digits?
Hi everybody,
I'm trying to build a QR-Code Scanner and Generator App for IOS.
Whenever I try to implement the camera the app crashes with this comment:
This app has crashed because it attempted to access privacy-sensitive data without a usage description. The app's Info.plist must contain an NSCameraUsageDescription key with a string value explaining to the user how the app uses this data.
I tried to reduce the app to the minimum of nothing but camera with the same result.
Any ideas?
Tank you and
best Regards
Horst Schippers
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Even though navigationBarBackButtonHidden is set, the back button appears when you swipe slightly.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
VoiceOver reads out all visible content on the screen, which is essential for visually challenged users. However, this raises a privacy concern—what if a user accidentally focuses on sensitive information, like a bank account password, and it gets read aloud?
How can developers prevent VoiceOver from exposing confidential data while still maintaining accessibility? Are there best practices or recommended approaches to handle such scenarios effectively?
Using the floating keyboard extensively. Often It starts to jump up and down. I have to pinch out to see the large version and pinch in again to restore the floating version. Sometimes just touching a key sets it off. Sometimes returning to a window from which the keyboard is displayed starts the issue. This was never a problem in ipad os 18.
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?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Hello! I'm adding VoiceOver support for my app, but I'm having an issue where my accessibility value is not being spoken. I have made a helper class that creates an NSString from a double and converts it to the user's region currency.
CurrencyFormatter.m
+ (NSString *) localizedCurrencyStringFromDouble: (double) value {
NSNumberFormatter *formatter = [[NSNumberFormatter alloc] init];
formatter.numberStyle = NSNumberFormatterCurrencyStyle;
formatter.locale = [NSLocale currentLocale];
NSString *currencyString = [formatter stringFromNumber: @(value)];
[formatter release];
return currencyString;
}
View Contoller
self.checkTotalLabel.accessibilityLabel = NSLocalizedString(@"Total Amount", @"Accessibility Label for Total");
self.checkTotalLabel.accessibilityValue = [CurrencyFormatter localizedCurrencyStringFromDouble: total];
I'm confused on whether the value should go into the accessibility label or not. When the currency is just USD and the language is English, it's a simple fix. But when the currency needs to be converted, I'm not sure where to go from here.
If anyone has any guidance, it would help me a lot!
Thank you!
Please update Accessibility OS Settings for VoiceOver in iPhone iOS and iPadOS to include frames on the Rotor, and to make web navigation and component gestures easier to find and assign. Please add content to the iPhone and iPad Apple User Guide to use VoiceOver in web navigation with touch gestures.
Specifically... iframes.
There is no clear guidance in Apple documentation for VoiceOver users in iPhone or iPadOS to access iframes with touch gestures. A common belief as written on AppleVis, other blogs, and internet searches is that iframes in Safari or a webView in an app are only available with explore by touch.
If explore by touch is the only option for some interactions, that needs to be included in Apple User Guides. If not, details on equivalent touch gestures for VO that have keyboard interactions in Mac need to be clear for users.
VoiceOver for Mac includes a default keyboard interaction of VO-Command-F in its extensive User Guide (https://support.apple.com/guide/voiceover/by-images-or-frames-mchlp2740/mac). A user can include a rotor option for web navigation for iframes.
VoiceOver for iPhone and iPad does not include a default swipe gesture assigned to frames. An option is not available for the Rotor.
While there is iPhone User Guide guidance that gestures can be customized (https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/customize-gestures-and-keyboard-shortcuts-iph59a8e6fd2/18.0/ios/18.0), it is not clear that for adding this gesture, "Move to the next frame" is tucked into the advanced navigation commands for VoiceOver Accessibility Settings in the OS. At least in my phone, the word "frame" was not searchable despite the All Commands screen using a search bar.
I am invoking the UIImagePickerController of type UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypePhotoLibrary from my viewController. I want shift the keyboard focus to the Cancel button which is the first interactive element on the gallery picker. When a user has full keyboard access turned on they should be able to tap tab and interact with the gallery picker modal. How do I achieve this?
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.
I have a TextField and entered for example "sg?!". At the TextField I set the modifier speechAlwaysIncludesPunctuation(). But when I activate VoiceOver the content of TextField is reading. The special characters don't read out.
How can I fix this?
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)
}
}
}
}
I'd like to add borders to all buttons in the iOS simulator from my Mac app. First I get the simulator window. Then I access the children of all AXGroup and if it's a button or a static text, I add a border.
But for some buttons this does not work. In the example image the NavigationBarButtons are not found. I guess the problem is, that for some AXGroup the children array access with AXChildren is empty.
Here is some relevant code:
- (NSArray<DDHOverlayElement *> *)overlayChildrenOfUIElement:(AXUIElementRef)element index:(NSInteger)index {
NSMutableArray<DDHOverlayElement *> *tempOverlayElements = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSLog(@">>> -----------------------------------------------------");
NSString *role = [UIElementUtilities roleOfUIElement:element];
NSRect frame = [UIElementUtilities frameOfUIElement:element];
NSLog(@"%@, role: %@, %@", element, role, [NSValue valueWithRect:frame]);
NSArray *lineage = [UIElementUtilities lineageOfUIElement:element];
NSLog(@"lineage: %@", lineage);
NSArray<NSValue *> *children = [UIElementUtilities childrenOfUIElement:element];
if (children.count < 1) {
NSLog(@"NO CHILDREN");
}
for (NSInteger i = 0; i < [children count]; i++) {
NSValue *child = children[i];
AXUIElementRef uiElement = (__bridge AXUIElementRef)child;
NSString *role = [UIElementUtilities roleOfUIElement:uiElement];
NSRect frame = [UIElementUtilities frameOfUIElement:uiElement];
NSLog(@"----%@, role: %@, %@", child, role, [NSValue valueWithRect:frame]);
}
NSLog(@"<<< -----------------------------------------------------");
for (NSInteger i = 0; i < [children count]; i++) {
NSValue *child = children[i];
AXUIElementRef uiElement = (__bridge AXUIElementRef)child;
NSString *role = [UIElementUtilities roleOfUIElement:uiElement];
NSRect frame = [UIElementUtilities frameOfUIElement:uiElement];
NSLog(@"%@, role: %@, %@", child, role, [NSValue valueWithRect:frame]);
if ([role isEqualToString:@"AXButton"] ||
[role isEqualToString:@"AXTextField"] ||
[role isEqualToString:@"AXStaticText"]) {
NSString *tag = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld%ld", (long)index, (long)i];
NSLog(@"tag: %@", tag);
DDHOverlayElement *overlayElement = [[DDHOverlayElement alloc] initWithUIElementValue:child tag:tag];
[tempOverlayElements addObject:overlayElement];
} else if ([role isEqualToString:@"AXGroup"] ||
[role isEqualToString:@"AXToolbar"]) {
[tempOverlayElements addObjectsFromArray:[self overlayChildrenOfUIElement:uiElement index:++index]];
} else if ([role isEqualToString:@"AXWindow"]) {
[self.overlayWindowController setFrame:[UIElementUtilities frameOfUIElement:uiElement]];
[tempOverlayElements addObjectsFromArray:[self overlayChildrenOfUIElement:uiElement index:index]];
}
}
return [tempOverlayElements copy];
}
For some AXGroup the children are found. For some they are empty. I cannot figure out why.
Does anyone have an idea what I'm doing wrong?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
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!
after the 26.3 beta update, my mouse has been having major problems with transparency, have to keep going to reset colors in display, but it doesn't hold, anyone else?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
There are several ways we are supposed to be able to control a11y (accessibility) focus in FKA (Full Keyboard Access) mode.
We should be able to set up an @AccessibilityFocusState variable that contains an enum for the different views that we want to receive a11y focus. That works from VO (VoiceOver) but not from FKA mode. See this sample project on Github:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79067665/how-to-manage-accessibilityfocusstate-for-swiftui-accessibility-keyboard
Similarly, we are supposed to be able to use accessibilitySortPriority to control the order that views are selected when a user using FKA tabs between views. That also works from VO but not from FKA mode. In the sample code below, the `.accessibilitySortPriority() ViewModifiers cause VO to change to a non-standard order when you swipe between views, but it has no effect in FKA mode.
Is there a way to either set the a11y focus or change the order in which the views are selected that actually works in SwiftUI when the user is in FKA mode?
Code that should cause FKA to tab between text fields in a custom order:
struct ContentView: View {
@State private var val1: String = "val 1"
@State private var val2: String = "val 2"
@State private var val3: String = "val 3"
@State private var val4: String = "val 4"
var body: some View {
VStack {
TextField("Value 1", text: $val1)
.accessibilitySortPriority(3)
VStack {
TextField("Value 2", text: $val2)
.accessibilitySortPriority(1)
}
HStack {
TextField("Value 3", text: $val3)
.accessibilitySortPriority(2)
TextField("Value 4", text: $val4)
.accessibilitySortPriority(4)
}
}
.padding()
}
}```
Say I have a UI element that moves on the screen. Is it possible to update its accessibility frame as it moves while VoiceOver is focused on it? From my tests, VoiceOver ignores UIAccessibilityLayoutChangedNotification if it's sent repeatedly in a short period of time on iOS, while sending NSAccessibilityLayoutChangedNotification on macOS triggers VoiceOver to reannounce the focused element repeatedly.
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.
I have a TabView with a sample tabItem as follows:
.tabItem {
Label ("Import", systemImage:"doc.on.doc")
.accessibilityLabel("Import Text")
}
But accessibility settings for large display size on does not seem to work, nor do dynamic font sizes:
.tabItem {
Label ("Import", systemImage:"doc.on.doc")
.font(.largeTitle)
.accessibilityLabel("Import Text")
}
The tabItems appear as a fixed size. The tab contents scale well, so this does not look pleasant at all.
Is this a known bug in SwiftUI?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General