Day 79

screenChanged vs layoutChanged notifications

5 Aug 2022

If both screenChanged and layoutChanged notifications signal changes in the UI and allow you to move VoiceOver's focus somewhere else, what's the difference? To the user, screen changed plays a sound indicating them they got moved to a new screen.

One example from the YouTube app shows that, when VoiceOver is on, and double tapping with the more actions button selected, VoiceOver plays a sound indicating that the screen changed (that's the difference between screen changed and layout changed notifications), and will then move the focus to the dismiss button of the presented screen. The second example is the camera app. When the camera controls button is focused, VoiceOver says:

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Day 162

Turn on VoiceOver with Siri

A quick way for turning on, or off, VoiceOver is by using Siri. Say something like: "Hey, Siri! Turn on VoiceOver", and you'll find yourself using VoiceOver in no time. You can also do the same with other technologies like Voice Control.

Day 15

Use formatters for abbreviation labels

Tip for abbreviations. Something like "3h 24m" will be read by VoiceOver as "3 h 24 meters". Formatters can help. DateComponentsFormatter with a "spellOut" units style will give you a more suitable label: "three hours, twenty-four minutes" Example code in the image: ```swift let dailyAverageLabel = UILabel() let abbreviatedReadableFormatter = DateComponentsFormatter() abbreviatedReadableFormatter.allowedUnits = [.hour, .minute] abbreviatedReadableFormatter.unitsStyle = .spellOut let abbreviatedReadableDuration = abbreviatedReadableFormatter.string(from: 12240) dailyAverageLabel.accessibilityLabel = abbreviatedReadableDuration ``` Some useful links: * Date Components Formatter: * Units Style: By the way! Formatters are also great for localisation.

VoiceOver iOS

Day 200

Don't miss visual cues in accessibility labels

There are details conveying important information that are shown visually with little icons, badges, progress bars, and similar cues that can be missed when they are not added as part of the accessibility label or accessibility value of a UI component.

VoiceOver accessibility accessibilityLabel accessibilityValue iOS

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