Day 44

Mark decorative images as non-accessible

1 Jul 2022

SwiftUI UIKit VoiceOver accessibilityElement

If an image does not convey additional information, maybe it's just used to make the UI look more attractive, it makes sense for VoiceOver to skip it. UIKit: set isAccessibilityElement to false. SwiftUI: create a decorative image explicitly.

The photos app in iOS showing a “What’s new in Photos” screen. It has three new features, each one of them preceded of an icon. These icons could be considered decorative. The code shows how you can set isAccessibilityElement to false for an image view in UIKit and how SwiftUI has am explicit constructor with the decorative keyword, so VoiceOver ignores this element.

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Day 109

SwiftUI contain mirrors semanticGroup

The equivalent of using a .semanticGroup accessibilityContainerType in UIKit, would be to use the .accessibilityElement(children: ) modifier with the .contain option in SwiftUI. Here's a refresher with some use-cases: https://x.com/dadederk/status/1558790851496742914

Day 110

Manage accessibility traits in SwiftUI

As with UIKit, in SwiftUI you can also add/remove a11y traits. But because of its declarative nature, you'll have to approach it in a slightly different way. A little nuance, but something that made me scratch my UIKit head when learning SwitUI.

SwiftUI UIKit

Day 227

accessibilitySortPriority for VoiceOver order

VoiceOver will traverse elements from left-right, and from top-bottom. If for any reason you need to change that order, in SwiftUI you can change the accessibility sort priority. A higher priority number in the container means it will go first.

HIG SwiftUI VoiceOver

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