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Solo Developer User Feedback Avenues
I have a couple follow up questions after the "Accessibility technologies group lab". I know it was briefly mentioned that user feedback is an excellent way to grow inclusivity in the design an app and utilizing these forums were one for example. Is inviting folks here on the forum via test flight a reasonable approach to this for a solo developer? Are there other strategies, avenues, or examples to promote user feedback?
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97
Jun ’25
BLE Device Not Appearing in Scan List on iOS After Name Change
I'm encountering an issue related to BLE device discovery on iOS. I have a BLE peripheral device that I initially connected to using an iOS device. After this connection, the BLE device's advertised name was programmatically changed by the peripheral. Now, when I try to scan for this device using other iOS devices, it does not appear in the scan results in most apps — including nRF Connect and our own custom BLE app that uses CoreBluetooth. A few observations: The device is definitely powered on and advertising (confirmed via Android). The name change is reflected correctly on Android and on the iOS device that originally connected to it. Other iOS devices no longer see the device in their scan list.
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335
Jul ’25
SpaceBar Not functioning as expected
When I am doing a file search, in TextEdit, and on certain webistes the space bar will quit functioning as soon as i start typing. If I hold down the "Option" key it allows the space bar to work as normal. I have checked every setting I can think of and nothing has helped.
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128
Apr ’25
Make Accessibility Focus move to UIPickerView when tapping on UITextField (Full Keyboard Access)
I have a UITextField in my application for entering a state. If I tap on it, a UIPickerView pops up and let's the user select a state (but they can still type too). The issue relates to Full Keyboard Access. If we select the UITextField using an external keyboard, the UIPickerView appears, but in order to get to it the user has to tab through the whole view controller to get to the UIPickerView at the end. What would be nice is to a) move focus directly to the UIPickerView (have it highlighted in blue and scrollable right away with keyboard) or b) make the UIPickerView the next view that's accessible when tabbing over or using the arrow keys. I've tried using: UIAccessibility notifications (both .screenChanged and .layoutChanged, with and without a delay). This ended up only announcing the view, but didn't help with full keyboard access. Making the UIPickerView a first responder when it appears. Attempting to change the accessibilityElements order (but with so many views and views within views, this isn't really a viable option either). Pressing tab + -> (tab and right arrow button) will quickly take the user to the end of the chain of accessibility elements, in other words, to the UIPickerView. But there has to be a cleaner way of just automatically setting the focus to the UIPickerView or making it the next element by pressing the arrow key.
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393
Mar ’25
Seeking API Support for Marking Substrings as Headings in NSTextView for VoiceOver
I'm developing a document editor for macOS using AppKit, which supports structured content such as titles and multiple heading levels—similar to what you see in the Pages app. I'm looking for a way to programmatically mark a specific substring within an NSTextView as a heading, so that VoiceOver can recognize it and announce it appropriately (e.g., by saying “heading” before reading the text). This would be similar in spirit to how NSAccessibilityLinkTextAttribute works for links. Is there an existing accessibility text attribute or recommended approach to achieve this behavior for headings? If not, I’d appreciate any guidance or suggestions on how best to implement this in a VoiceOver-friendly way. Thank you in advance for your help! Best regards,
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100
May ’25
Default Voices for AVSpeechUtterance
It appears iOS only comes with low quality voices installed. iOS requires the user to go into settings to download higher quality voices to be used with AVSpeechUtterance. There doesn't seem to be any api that can be used to make this process easier for the app user. Is there a way / api that would allow an app to download and use a higher quality voice? Will apple ever install on default higher quality voices? We really want to use the text to speech api in iOS however the very high amount of user friction to use high quality voices is stopping us. I would appreciate a response. Thanks
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708
Sep ’25
Verification error: unable to get local issuer certificate
C:\Users\xjc>openssl s_client -connect gateway.push.apple.com:2195 -showcerts Connecting to 17.188.183.32 CONNECTED(000000AC) depth=1 C=US, O=Entrust, Inc., OU=See www/legal-terms, OU=(c) 2012 Entrust, Inc. - for authorized use only, CN=Entrust Certification Authority - L1K verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate verify return:1 depth=0 C=US, ST=California, L=Cupertino, O=Apple Inc., CN=gateway.push.apple.com verify return:1 B0640000:error:0A000410:SSL routines:ssl3_read_bytes:ssl/tls alert handshake failure:ssl\record\rec_layer_s3.c:908:SSL alert number 40 Certificate chain 0 s:C=US, ST=California, L=Cupertino, O=Apple Inc., CN=gateway.push.apple.com i:C=US, O=Entrust, Inc., OU=See www/legal-terms, OU=(c) 2012 Entrust, Inc. - for authorized use only, CN=Entrust Certification Authority - L1K a:PKEY: rsaEncryption, 2048 (bit); sigalg: RSA-SHA256 v:NotBefore: Aug 16 21:34:09 2024 GMT; NotAfter: Aug 15 21:34:07 2025 GMT -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIIGqDCCBZCgAwIBAgIQCUjuxVwL1mhSlrjSSk/+BzANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADCB WnKd+td/wZ6Ej6EB mDF8JCSKz/ck+NnLfGM0jFdcTCl8dKuqM9XetP4ls1sVyUuLM7sJiQvMVDzluZ22 LA9EMc5ZcbdV96ZpKS3ETk5n7355fyVX+jZ24ZvfhtdyPvdUGuHzcrK/YfB0AsjY hIhXgkxMfqJDjj7Af1CDPSAv9cylGI5b9v5QX93pM8uGxSRZTGS5m4qJG0Jj4UpV QlzppFg+qE41yDrdy4rLxROW4bp/HPvEjo1YoAle3K208UMffVPBqGfZqbZ01+hP gHCeamBb6QlV2Zq6q/VEKUO6p6oFQnI0phQiAQ== -----END CERTIFICATE----- 1 s:C=US, O=Entrust, Inc., OU=See www/legal-terms, OU=(c) 2012 Entrust, Inc. - for authorized use only, CN=Entrust Certification Authority - L1K i:C=US, O=Entrust, Inc., OU=See www/legal-terms, OU=(c) 2009 Entrust, Inc. - for authorized use only, CN=Entrust Root Certification Authority - G2 a:PKEY: rsaEncryption, 2048 (bit); sigalg: RSA-SHA256 v:NotBefore: Oct 5 19:13:56 2015 GMT; NotAfter: Dec 5 19:43:56 2030 GMT -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIIFDjCCA/agAwIBAgIMDulMwwAAAABR03eFMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMIG+MQsw CQYDVQQGEwJVUzEWMBQGA1UEChMNRW50cnVzdCwgSW5jLjEoMCYGA1UECxMfU2Vl IHd3dy5lbnRydXN0Lm5ldC9sZWdhbC10ZXJtczE5MDcGA1UECxMwKGMpIDIwMDkg RW50cnVzdCwgSW5jLiAtIGZvciBhdXRob3JpemVkIHVzZSBvbmx5MTIwMAYDVQQD EylFbnRydXN0IFJvb3QgQ2VydGlmaWNhdGlvbiBBdXRob3JpdHkgLSBHMjAeFw0x NTEwMDUxOTEzNTZaFw0zMDEyMDUxOTQzNTZaMIG6MQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzEWMBQG A1UEChMNRW50cnVzdCwgSW5jLjEoMCYGA1UECxMfU2VlIHd3dy5lbnRydXN0Lm5l dC9sZWdhbC10ZXJtczE5MDcGA1UECxMwKGMpIDIwMTIgRW50cnVzdCwgSW5jLiAt IGZvciBhdXRob3JpemVkIHVzZSBvbmx5MS4wLAYDVQQDEyVFbnRydXN0IENlcnRp ZmljYXRpb24gQXV0aG9yaXR5IC0gTDFLMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8A MIIBCgKCAQEA2j+W0E25L0Tn2zlem1DuXKVh2kFnUwmqAJqOV38pa9vH4SEkqjrQ jUcj0u1yFvCRIdJdt7hLqIOPt5EyaM/OJZMssn2XyP7BtBe6CZ4DkJN7fEmDImiK m95HwzGYei59QAvS7z7Tsoyqj0ip/wDoKVgG97aTWpRzJiatWA7lQrjV6nN5ZGhT JbiEz5R6rgZFDKNrTdDGvuoYpDbwkrK6HIiPOlJ/915tgxyd8B/lw9bdpXiSPbBt LOrJz5RBGXFEaLpHPATpXbo+8DX3Fbae8i4VHj9HyMg4p3NFXU2wO7GOFyk36t0F ASK7lDYqjVs1/lMZLwhGwSqzGmIdTivZGwIDAQABo4IBDDCCAQgwDgYDVR0PAQH/ BAQDAgEGMBIGA1UdEwEB/wQIMAYBAf8CAQAwMwYIKwYBBQUHAQEEJzAlMCMGCCsG AQUFBzABhhdodHRwOi8vb2NzcC5lbnRydXN0Lm5ldDAwBgNVHR8EKTAnMCWgI6Ah hh9odHRwOi8vY3JsLmVudHJ1c3QubmV0L2cyY2EuY3JsMDsGA1UdIAQ0MDIwMAYE VR0gADAoMCYGCCsGAQUFBwIBFhpodHRwOi8vd3d3LmVudHJ1c3QubmV0L3JwYTAd BgNVHQ4EFgQUgqJwdN28Uz/Pe9T3zX+nYMYKTL8wHwYDVR0jBBgwFoAUanImetAe 733nO2lR1GyNn5ASZqswDQYJKoZIhvcNAQELBQADggEBADnVjpiDYcgsY9NwHRkw y/YJrMxp1cncN0HyMg/vdMNY9ngnCTQIlZIv19+4o/0OgemknNM/TWgrFTEKFcxS BJPok1DD2bHi4Wi3Ogl08TRYCj93mEC45mj/XeTIRsXsgdfJghhcg85x2Ly/rJkC k9uUmITSnKa1/ly78EqvIazCP0kkZ9Yujs+szGQVGHLlbHfTUqi53Y2sAEo1GdRv c6N172tkw+CNgxKhiucOhk3YtCAbvmqljEtoZuMrx1gL+1YQ1JH7HdMxWBCMRON1 exCdtTix9qrKgWRs6PLigVWXUX/hwidQosk8WwBD9lu51aX8/wdQQGcHsFXwt35u Lcw= -----END CERTIFICATE----- Server certificate subject=C=US, ST=California, L=Cupertino, O=Apple Inc., CN=gateway.push.apple.com issuer=C=US, O=Entrust, Inc., OU=See www/legal-terms, OU=(c) 2012 Entrust, Inc. - for authorized use only, CN=Entrust Certification Authority - L1K Acceptable client certificate CA names C=US, O=Apple Inc., OU=Apple Certification Authority, CN=Apple Root CA CN=Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority, OU=G4, O=Apple Inc., C=US CN=Apple Application Integration 2 Certification Authority, OU=Apple Certification Authority, O=Apple Inc., C=US CN=Apple Corporate Authentication CA 1, OU=Certification Authority, O=Apple Inc., C=US C=US, O=Apple Inc., OU=Apple Worldwide Developer Relations, CN=Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority CN=Apple Corporate Root CA, OU=Certification Authority, O=Apple Inc., C=US C=US, O=Apple Inc., OU=Apple Certification Authority, CN=Apple Application Integration Certification Authority C=US, ST=California, L=Cupertino, O=Apple Inc., CN=gateway.push.apple.com Client Certificate Types: RSA sign, ECDSA sign Requested Signature Algorithms: ECDSA+SHA256:RSA-PSS+SHA256:RSA+SHA256:ECDSA+SHA384:RSA-PSS+SHA384:RSA+SHA384:RSA-PSS+SHA512:RSA+SHA512:RSA+SHA1 Shared Requested Signature Algorithms: ECDSA+SHA256:RSA-PSS+SHA256:RSA+SHA256:ECDSA+SHA384:RSA-PSS+SHA384:RSA+SHA384:RSA-PSS+SHA512:RSA+SHA512 SSL handshake has read 4138 bytes and written 687 bytes Verification error: unable to get local issuer certificate New, SSLv3, Cipher is AES128-SHA Protocol: TLSv1.2 Server public key is 2048 bit Secure Renegotiation IS supported Compression: NONE Expansion: NONE No ALPN negotiated SSL-Session: Protocol : TLSv1.2 Cipher : AES128-SHA Session-ID: Session-ID-ctx: Master-Key: D504C13BDBC59CDF3B883D1B626FA2B59000754DED57CD77A72F761A52AEED719DA06C100FBA1430BB9D8DECFC7C9307 PSK identity: None PSK identity hint: None SRP username: None Start Time: 1741092949 Timeout : 7200 (sec) Verify return code: 20 (unable to get local issuer certificate) Extended master secret: yes
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534
Mar ’25
Don't get the completed shipping contact after authorizaiton
We have get the response from Apple pay after the the customer doing the face ID & touch ID authorization. But the shiping contact is not complete, for examble: ` { "addressLines": [ "1************ kwy" ], "administrativeArea": "FL", "country": "", "countryCode": "", "emailAddress": "S*********le.com", "familyName": "******i", "givenName": "******m", "locality": "*******s", "phoneNumber": "+*******79", "phoneticFamilyName": "", "phoneticGivenName": "", "postalCode": "*****3", "subAdministrativeArea": "", "subLocality": "" },` as the documents said, it should be the completed shipping contact, but the country & countrycode is null https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_pay_on_the_web/applepaypayment/1916097-shippingcontact
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439
Dec ’24
SwiftUI tvOS Accessibility VoiceOver - prevent reading all items in ScrollView over and over
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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127
Apr ’25
Critical Bug: Children Can Disable Screen Time Apps Like Choreio Without Parental ApprovalI
Dear Apple Support, I am reporting a critical issue affecting parental control apps like my app, Choreio, which is live on the App Store. When Screen Time settings are configured to require a parent’s password for changes, parents must log in on their child’s device to make any adjustments. This restriction is expected to extend to apps using the Screen Time API, such as Choreio. However, I’ve discovered a significant bug: children can bypass this restriction by simply toggling off Choreio in the Screen Time settings—without needing the parent’s password. This effectively disables the app and defeats its purpose as a parental control tool. Please address this issue as soon as possible to ensure the intended functionality of parental controls. Let me know if you need any additional information to assist with resolving this. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Best regards, Jeff Houston STEPS TO REPRODUCE Here are the steps to reproduce the issue clearly: Install Choreio from the App Store on the child’s phone. Enable parental controls in Screen Time and set it to require the parent’s password for any changes to Screen Time settings. Go to the Screen Time settings on the child’s phone. Observe that the child can simply toggle off Choreio, effectively deactivating the app, without needing the parent’s password. Expected behavior: Toggling off Choreio should require the parent’s password, just like it does for other Screen Time settings. Let me know if additional details are needed!
4
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341
Feb ’25
When using UIScrollView and UITextView together, inserting a link causes the following text to disappear.
Since UITextView does not support the zoom function, the zoom function of UITextView with addSubview is used in UIScrollView. However, when I use the link here, the text behind it is missing. Ex) https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/login\nApple Developer Login -> The text “Apple Developer Login” does not appear. If anyone has experienced the same problem as me or knows a solution, please leave a comment. Note) It is working normally in iOS16, but the text behind the link disappears in iOS18. The text is not visible, but you can copy it and paste it to retrieve the missing text.
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240
Feb ’25
iPadOS 26 Floating Keyboard jumping up and down
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.
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441
Sep ’25
Apple greets Global Accessibility Awareness Day with severe accessibility violations on macOS
I'm reposting here my FB17602742, submitted yesterday: The strong wording of this message comes from years of Apple ignoring the needs of users who can't tolerate UI animations and convulsions. At this point, it's clear that Apple is either intentionally harming users like me or simply doesn't care about meeting even the most basic accessibility standards on macOS. Yes, many UI animations and convulsions can, fortunately, be disabled - but not through straightforward UI controls. Instead, users are forced to look for obscure Terminal commands found scattered across the Internet. The "Reduce motion" checkbox in System Settings is simply a fake control that doesn't do anything - instead of actually disabling all UI animations and convulsions. What's worse, two of the most offensive UI animations cannot be disabled at all. Apple has consistently dismissed requests to let users disable the following UI animations: Scroll bar rollover highlight effect (introduced on macOS 10.7.3). Every time the cursor passes over a scroll bar, it gets highlighted. This draws the user's attention to random scroll bars for no reason - just because the cursor happened to pass over them. It results in HUNDREDS of unnecessary, annoying events of distraction daily!
 Expand/collapse animation of NSOutlineView (e.g., when opening/closing folders in the list view in the Finder, or any other app using outline views). This animation is extremely distracting, irritating, and time-wasting. Global Accessibility Awareness Day is approaching. Dear Apple, Please adhere to the most basic accessibility standards. Stop the needless suffering of countless users like me. Let us disable the two aforementioned UI convulsions. Thank you for your attention to the issue.
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146
May ’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.
3
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184
Jun ’25
Apple Developer Program Purchase Not Saving Progress
I’m trying to enroll in the Apple Developer Program as an individual. I’ve gone through the steps on the website and started the purchase process. However, after a couple of days when I return to the site, it doesn’t remember my progress — I have to start the enrollment from scratch every time. Is this expected behavior? Am I missing a step to save my progress or complete the enrollment properly? Any help or guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!
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157
Jun ’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)
1
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93
Jun ’25
How to lookup keybinding translation across input sources
I have an application that binds a menu item to trigger on ⌘]. When I set the US input source, I press ⌘] in order to trigger that item. However, when I switch the input source to QWERTZ (German), the trigger changes to ⌘Ä automatically by the OS. It seems to translate keystrokes for different input sources. The problem is that I also render the keybindings in a window in my application, and my application is not aware of this translation. Furthermore, I have other key shortcuts in my application which are not bound to menu items, and I want to make sure those get translated too. Does AppKit expose a way to lookup what a keystroke will be when MacOS translates it, i.e. lookup ⌘Ä from ⌘] when the current layout is QWERTZ? I can't find anything in Apple's docs. I tried converting a character to virtual key code based on the US layout and then mapping it back to a character based on the QWERTZ layout. That doesn't seem to be the same b/c that ends up converting ] to + instead which seems to be based on physical key location, different from how the keybindings are handled. Update: I notice similar behavior for VS Code's menu bar, e.g. in their "Terminal" menu. Switching to German changes some bindings. This does not occur at all in iTerm's menu bar, I suspect b/c their menu items are specified in a different way, xib files with hard-coded key equivalents
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432
Jan ’25