Two more examples on better accessibility labels for abbreviations. "4 days ago" is better than "4 D", with a RelativeDateTimeFormatter and a spellOut units style. "Monday" is better than "Mon", accessing the weekdaySymbols from a Calendar.

Apple Watch drawing showing the example from the tweet. Code showing how you can get a readable version for VoiceOver by using a RelativeDateFormatter with a spell out unit style and the weekdaySymbols array from a calendar.

Some useful links:

Relative Date Time Formatter: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/relativedatetimeformatter

Units Style: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/relativedatetimeformatter/unitsstyle-swift.enum/spellout

Weekday symbols: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/calendar/weekdaysymbols

You may also find interesting...

Images should either be decorative or have a proper accessibility label or alt text that describes them. If they're decorative you can make it so they get skipped by assistive tech so it doesn't get in the way of the experience.

Check for the traversal order of elements in your app. Sometimes, the default top-left to bottom-right order might not be the most logical one. Sometimes, you may consciously want to tweak the order. Some other times, grouping is the answer.

You can add your Accessibility Shortcuts to Control Centre too. One more quick access point and one more reminder to get you testing often and quickly. How to enable Accessibility shortcuts: https://x.com/dadederk/status/1583519154165800960?s=61&t=_fK9Muzu2MyFEeJLVQZcJg

Created in Swift with Ignite.

Supporting Swift for Swifts