Day 82

Fix traversal order with accessibilityElements

8 Aug 2022

It is possible to change the traversing order of accessibility elements by configuring the accessibilityElements array. You should try to avoid it, but one good reason for doing it is if the default order is illogical because of the visual layout.

Twitter app showing a profile screen. VoiceOver will focus by default its elements in this order: Header photo, back button, search button, more actions button, profile photo, notifications button, direct message button, follow button, account's name, etc. Maybe we could change the order so the first element is the back button and the second is the account's name, acting as a header for the screen. We can achieve that by overriding the accessibilityElements property of the view implementing the account header and return the elements in the order we want.

Some of you have asked me how you can support what I do. This would really help, and would be hugely appreciated:

  • Find these posts useful? Share them at work, on social media, or with anyone that might find them interesting. Let's spread the word!

  • Check out any of my apps or games: Xarra!, RetroRapid!, or Mestre!.

    • A download and a review go a long way. They're free by default. On the App Store, ratings and reviews really help more people discover them.

    • Finding any of them useful? If so, and if you can afford it, purchasing lifetime access to all features or subscribing lets me buy the coffee that keeps me caffeinated. Caffeine keeps me going to maintain the apps, bring in new features that I hope you'll love, and keep writing.

You may also find interesting...

If you need for a view (and all its subviews) not to be focusable by assistive tech like VoiceOver, you can set its accessibilityElementsHidden property to true. This isn't needed very often, but it can be useful for certain custom experiences.

What is the difference between isAccessibilityElement and accessibilityElementsHidden? The first one makes the view not accessible, but its subviews can still be accessible. The second one hides the view and all its subviews from assistive tech.

Sometimes you can create your own accessibility elements from scratch to group elements too. Perhaps because they're not contained in the same superview. You can combine these elements' frames and provide a suitable accessibility label.


Content © Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats on Accessibility up to 11! is licensed under CC BY 4.0. License details