Day 42

29 Jun 2022

I'll never recommend creating a custom component if there is a native one that does the job. But if you develop a custom tab bar, .tabBar accessibility trait comes to the rescue. Apply to a container view and its buttons will be announced as tabs.

An app that looks like Swarm has a custom tab bar. If the container view of the tab bar has the tabBar accessibility trait and its property isAccessibilityElement is false, its three buttons would be announced as: “selected, personal feed, Tab, 1 of 3”, “check-in, Tab, 2 of 3”, “friends, Tab, 3 of 3”. It indicates they’re tabs and their position in the custom tab bar.

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Day 51

Guidelines from Apple: Begin with a verb that explains the results of the action. Avoid using the imperative form of a verb because that can make it sound like a command. Don’t include the action type. Don’t include the control. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/objectivec/nsobject-swift.class/accessibilityhint

Day 138

You can add an observer to listen for changes in the content size category, in case it is more convenient than overriding traitCollectionDidChange(_:).

Day 142

Today I want to share something I use a lot. You can convert any article into a “podcast” by enabling Speak Screen in Accessibility Settings, switching to Safari’s Reader Mode and swiping down with two fingers from the top of the screen. I think it is a good example of how if we all knew more about how to use the assistive tech available in iOS, we would find ourselves using more of them, more often, exemplifying quite well that accessibility benefits everyone.

Accessibility Speak Screen iOS

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