SwiftUI provides the accessibilityCustomContent(_:_:) modifier to add additional accessibility information for an element. However, I couldn’t find a similar approach in UIKit.
Is there a way to achieve this in UIKit?
General
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Can you guys like probably make Visual Intelligence available for the action button on the iPhone 16e? It should be only for iPhones that use A18 and future gen apple chips.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I have a view dynamically overlaid on a UITableView with proper padding (added when certain conditions are met). When VoiceOver focuses on a cell beneath this overlay, the focused element does not scroll into view. I’ve noticed similar behavior in Apple’s first-party Podcasts app.
Please find the attached image for reference. How can I resolve this issue and ensure VoiceOver scrolls the focused cell into view?
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.
I am developing a vision os app for controlling an underwater ROV. I have ornaments with telemetry and buttons around a central video view feed. I have custom buttons mappings, such as "A" for locking the depth of the drone. However, when I look at buttons or certain ornaments, my custom gamepad logic is kept from running. This means that when a SwiftUI Button gains focus on visionOS, pressing the controller’s A button triggers the system’s default “click” on that Button rather than my custom buttonA handler. Essentially, focus interception by the system is stealing my A-press events and preventing my custom gamepad logic from running.
Is there a way to disable the built in gamepad interaction and only allow my custom gamepad mappings?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Game Controller
Accessibility
Focus
visionOS
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.
Hello!
I was faced with unexpected behavior of hardware keyboard focus in UITests.
A clear description of the problem
When running UITests on the iOS Simulator with both "Full Keyboard Access" and "Connect Hardware Keyboard" options enabled, there is a noticeable delay between keyboard actions for focus managing (like pressing Tab or arrow keys). The delay seems to increase with repeated input and suggests that events are being queued instead of processed immediately.
I will describe why I have such an assumption later.
A step-by-step set of instructions to reproduce the problem
Launch the iOS Simulator.
Enable both "Full Keyboard Access" and "Connect Hardware Keyboard" in the Simulator settings.
Run a UITest on a target application (ideally an endless or long-running test).
Once the app is launched, press the Tab key several times.
Observe the delay in focus movement.
Optionally, press the Tab or arrow keys rapidly, then stop the UITest.
After stopping, you’ll see a burst of rapid focus changes.
What results you expected
We expected keyboard actions (like Tab) to be handled immediately and the UI focus to update smoothly during UITests.
What results you saw
There was a 4–10 (end more) second delay between pressing keys and seeing a response. All stacked keyboard events (used for managing focus) are performed all at once after stopping the UITest.
The version of Xcode you are using
Xcode: Version 16.3 (16E140)
Simulator: iPhone 16 Pro (iOS 18.4 and 18.1)
Simulator: iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) (iPadOS 17.5)
I’d love to see Apple implement a Bionic Reading feature as a system-wide accessibility option. This type of reading aid highlights the first part of each word in bold to help guide the eyes and improve comprehension.
It’s been shown to be especially helpful for people with ADHD, dyslexia, and other neurodivergent needs. Having a toggle in Settings > Accessibility would be life-changing.
Ideally, it could be:
• Enabled system-wide, or per-app
• Allow customization of how much of the word is bolded
• Available in Safari, Messages, Books, News, etc.
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?
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.
I downloaded the official camera sample code(https://developer.apple.com/tutorials/sample-apps/capturingphotos-camerapreview )it's a .swiftpm package and created a SwiftUI project. I copied the official sample code into this new project, build it, and ran it on an iPhone 13 for testing. I found that there were black empty areas on the top and bottom of the application interface, which means that the application interface cannot be previewed in full screen. I have tried many methods but cannot preview in full screen. How can I modify the code?
Many of us Bangladeshi iPhone users were upset when Apple changed the font to Bangla in the most recent iOS version (18.4.1). We prefer the old Bangla typeface. I want the old Bangla typeface to return, and so do we. Please consider this.
Hello,
I'm observing a persistent and frustrating issue with an accessibility feature called Guided Access that seems to affect many users across different devices and iOS versions.
Problem
The triple-click gesture (side or home button) to activate Guided Access intermittently stops working after the device has been in normal use for a few days (typically 2-7 days) without a restart.
I have done some debugging for Apple in FB16094026 but received no updates after 6 months. So I'm posting here in the hope that this will be solved sooner. A core accessibility feature shouldn't require daily device restarts to function reliably.
Details:
Guided Access is correctly enabled in Settings > Accessibility.
Initially, the triple-click works perfectly.
After a period of normal device use (2-7 days), the triple-click no longer triggers Guided Access in any app.
Restarting the device temporarily resolves the issue, and Guided Access triple-click works again immediately after a reboot. However, the problem recurs after continued use.
Simply toggling the Guided Access setting on/off does NOT fix it.
Additional observation: Even trying to select Guided Access manually via the Accessibility Shortcut menu (if multiple shortcuts are enabled) sometimes fails to launch the feature when in this state.
Affected:
iPhones and iPads
Observed on iOS/iPadOS 16, 17, and now 18, indicating it's a long-standing bug.
Impact:
Guided Access is a crucial accessibility feature for many users (for focus, special needs, parental controls, etc.). Its unreliable activation significantly disrupts daily workflows and reliance on this function. This issue appears to be widespread, with many reports across forums like Apple Support Communities and Reddit.
For example, this post received over 1k upvotes.
To see more examples please refer to FB16094026.
Could Apple please investigate this bug urgently? Thanks.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I remember that Vision Pro's dwell control could previously be set to 0.1 seconds, but now it can't. Is there a way to adjust it?
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?
I'm developing a macOS app using NSView and trying to make my content navigable via VoiceOver. I'm expecting the built-in rotor category "Content Chooser" (accessed via VO + U) to list my accessible elements — just like how it shows message items in the Mail app. However, in my app, this rotor appears empty, even though:
My views return proper accessibilityChildren() or accessibilityContents() with valid NSAccessibilityElements
Each child has correct AXRole, AXLabel, etc.
The window is key and visible
VoiceOver navigation works for the elements
I've also tried:
Using both accessibilityChildren() and accessibilityContents() in container views
Setting roles like .group, .staticText, .button, etc.
Avoiding hidden elements
Ensuring all elements are visible and labeled
Still, "Content Chooser" rotor is empty.
What exact conditions must be met for an element to appear in the "Content Chooser" rotor in a macOS app?
Any Apple-specific guidance, hidden requirements, or sample code would be appreciated.
I'm facing a bizarre issue with the Apple's Accessibility APIs. I am registering an AXObserver that listens for, among other things, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification. For many new users, the kAXSelectTextChangedNotification is not triggered, even though they have enabled Accessibility permission for the app. Other notifications are getting through (kAXWindowMovedNotification, kAXWindowResizedNotification, kAXValueChangedNotification etc - full list here), just not the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification!
We've found that we can reproduce the error by removing accessibility permission for the app and rebooting our computers. After restarting and reenabling accessibility permissions, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification was not received, even though other notifications were fine.
Strangely, the issue can be resolved by launching Apple's Accessibility Inspector app on an impacted computer. Once the Accessibility Inspector is loaded, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotifications start coming through as expected. This implies to me that either:
We are missing some needed setup when starting the observers. Accessibility Inspector gets it right, thus ‘starting’ the system properly.
Accessibility Inspector is using some Apple private APIs that we don’t have access to.
Things I’ve tried:
I've tried subscribing the AXSelectedTextChangedNotification to different AXUIElements, including the SystemWide element, the Application element, and children elements from the AXApplication. None of these received the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification, until Accessibility Inspector is booted up. No surprises here, as Apple's documentation confirms that you should add the notification to the root Application AXUIElement if you want to receive notifications for all its children.
I had a theory that the issue might be due to my code calling AXUIElementCreateApplication multiple times, possibly creating multiple "Applications" in Apple's Accessibility implementation. If that’s the case, the notifications might be sent to the wrong application AXUIElement. However, refactoring my code to only call AXUIElementCreateApplication once didn't resolve the issue.
I thought the issue may be caused by subscribing the AXSelectedTextChangedNotification on the high-level application element (at odds with Apple's documentation). I've tried traversing the child AXUIElements until we find one with the kAXSelectedTextAttribute and then subscribing to that. This did not resolve the issue. I don’t think it's the correct path to continue exploring, given that the notifications are received correctly after AccessibilityInspector is launched.
There is one exception to the above: if I add the kSelectedTextChangedNotification listener to a specific text field AXUIElement, I do receive the notification on that text field. However, this is not practical; I need a solution that will work for all text fields within an app. The Accessibility Inspector appears to be doing something that causes the selected-text-changed notifications to be correctly passed up to the high-level application AXUIElement.
Another thought is that I could traverse the entire Accessibility hierarchy and add listeners to every subview that has the kAXSelectedTextAttribute. However, I don’t like this long-term solution. It will be slow and incomplete: new elements get added and removed frequently. I just want the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification to be received by the high-level Application AXUIElement, which the documentation suggests it should be. I also have evidence that this can work, since notifications start coming through after Accessibility Inspector is launched. It’s just a matter of discovering how to replicate whatever Accessibility Inspector is doing.
An interesting wrinkle: I implemented the 'traverse' strategy above, but was surprised by how few elements were in the hierarchy. Most apps only go down ~2-3 levels, which didn't seem right to me. Perhaps the Accessibility tree isn't fully initialized? I tried adding a 5-second delay to allow more initialization time, but it didn't change anything.
Does anyone have any ideas? Here's our file.
ar quicklook suddenly is grayed out on iphone 15 pro, I bought the phone new recently ot was working great, 2 days ago updated to ios 18.1.4, ar mode kept opening but i started getting a move iphone over surface message and the object wouldn’t detect surfaces correctly, updated to ios 18.5, now when i open quicklook modesl ar is completely greyed out,
can someone help me fix or detect the issue
thank you
In the app I'm working on, I have a SwiftUI View embedded in a UIKit Storyboard. The SwiftUI View holds a menu with a list of payment tools, and the ForEach loop looks like this:
ForEach(self.paymentToolsVM.paymentToolsItems, id: \.self) { paymentTool in
Button {
navigationCallback(paymentTool.segueID)
} label: {
PaymentToolsRow(paymentToolName: paymentTool.title, imageName: paymentTool.imageName)
.accessibilityElement()
.accessibilityIdentifier("Billing_\(paymentTool.title.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: ""))")
}
if paymentTool != self.paymentToolsVM.paymentToolsItems.last {
Divider()
}
}
So you can see the accessibility ID is there, and it shows up properly when I open up Accessibility Inspector with the simulator, but the testing script isn't picking up on it, and it doesn't show up when the view is inspected in Appium. I have other SwiftUI views embedded in the UIKit view, and the script picks up the buttons on those, so I'm not sure what's different about this one.
If it helps, the script is written in Java with the BDD framework. I can try to get the relevant part of the script if anyone thinks that would be helpful. Otherwise, is there anything else I can try?
I have more than 1000 notes classified in parent/child folders up to 5 levels. From the 5th level of files I can no longer share the note. The note is not shared. It is that of the parent file that is shared.
Thank you very much
Good to you
Christophe
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General