Day 71

28 Jul 2022

Full Keyboard Access Switch Control Voice Control VoiceOver iOS

The Accessibility APIs are generic and flexible. They're not just for VoiceOver. If you implement them right, you can do it once and it will very likely work great for VoiceOver, Voice Control, Switch Control, Full Keyboard Access, and more.

That's why, to start with, we tend to focus on VoiceOver, the same way you may focus on keyboard navigation for the web. A great VoiceOver experience will get you most of the way to a good experience with the other assistive technologies.

We've seen one example with Custom Actions. One implementation works for:

VoiceOver: https://x.com/dadederk/status/1550099327053451266

Switch Control: https://x.com/dadederk/status/1551236244088279040

Full Keyboard Access: https://x.com/dadederk/status/1551874732504629249

And Voice Control: https://x.com/dadederk/status/1552253520182640645

Of course that doesn't mean you don't have to test and check how the experience is with the other technologies. But before feeling overwhelmed, or for small teams, making sure your app works for VoiceOver is a great start.

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Full Keyboard Access can be tested in the simulator! So convenient! You can enable it from Accessibility's settings in the simulator. And from there, you can navigate your app by just using your computer's keyboard.

Day 203

Grouping elements when it makes sense can make a huge impact on easing navigation with some assistive technologies like VoiceOver, Switch Control, or Full Keyboard Access. It also helps on reducing redundancy.

Full Keyboard Access Switch Control VoiceOver iOS

Day 48

Accessibility values are about state. Using them appropriately will make the experience better for Voice Control users. Think of a repeat button (values could be: off, one or all songs) or a notifications tab (value could be: x new items). For more on accessibility values, check out this fantastic blog post from @MobileA11y with info on the APIs (UIKit, SwiftUI), accessibility attributed values, WCAG, or some more examples (text in a text field, value on a stepper or slider). https://mobilea11y.com/blog/accessibility-values/

Voice Control accessibilityValue iOS

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