Day 89

Update accessibilityLabel when toggling

15 Aug 2022

Sometimes, buttons change meaning, for example when toggled. An example is a play button, tap it and it becomes a pause button. In such case, updating its accessibility label will be clearer than trying to convey the change with traits or values.

Music app has a play button. When using VoiceOver, if selected, it will say

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Accessibility labels might not be the best input labels, used for example to find or interact with elements with Voice Control or Full Keyboard Access. In those cases, you can provide accessibility user input labels.

Two more examples on better accessibility labels for abbreviations. "4 days ago" is better than "4 D", with a RelativeDateTimeFormatter and a spellOut units style. "Monday" is better than "Mon", accessing the weekdaySymbols from a Calendar. Some useful links: Relative Date Time Formatter: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/relativedatetimeformatter Units Style: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/relativedatetimeformatter/unitsstyle-swift.enum/spellout Weekday symbols: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/calendar/weekdaysymbols

The .selected accessibility trait indicates when an element has been selected. You’ll notice that VoiceOver announces “selected” before the accessibility label. You can find that in the system for the selected tab in the tab bar, for example.


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