I have users who need to be able to hear the content of SwiftUI Text views. I have specified the .textSelection(.enabled) modifier for the text views. Adding this modifier causes a "copy" option to appear on long press, but it doesn't enable the visible selection of text, nor does it provide the "Speak" menu item that UIKit allows on text selection.
Is the "Speak Selection" accessibility feature broken for SwiftUI Text views? I've found that there's another accessibility feature that does work (enabling the Speech Controller button for "Speak Screen"). Do I need to tell my users that Apple is deprecating the "Speak Selection" accessibility feature, and that they need to use the Speech Controller instead? Or is there something else I can do to my SwiftUI to get that feature to work?
Explore best practices for creating inclusive apps for users of Apple accessibility features and users from diverse backgrounds.
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I am developing a vision os app for controlling an underwater ROV. I have ornaments with telemetry and buttons around a central video view feed. I have custom buttons mappings, such as "A" for locking the depth of the drone. However, when I look at buttons or certain ornaments, my custom gamepad logic is kept from running. This means that when a SwiftUI Button gains focus on visionOS, pressing the controller’s A button triggers the system’s default “click” on that Button rather than my custom buttonA handler. Essentially, focus interception by the system is stealing my A-press events and preventing my custom gamepad logic from running.
Is there a way to disable the built in gamepad interaction and only allow my custom gamepad mappings?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Game Controller
Accessibility
Focus
visionOS
I have been working to remediate PDFs for a client. The documents/forms have many tables. When I correctly tag a table, using Foxit Editor Pro, it works beautifully on a PC reading it with NVDA. On Mac using VoiceOver the table isn't accessible. It doesn't matter if I try to read it in Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, or Preview. The reader often says the document is empty, omits column headers, and/or associates the wrong header with the column data.
The documents have essentially the same coding behind them as for the web. Why is it they perform so well on a PC with NVDA, but so poorly with Mac VoiceOver? I am a Quality Assurance Specialist. I review websites apps, and documents for accessibility. Why can't I do my job using only my Mac system?
As a Mac user, it frustrates me that I can't use my preferred system for checking documents to see if they are accessible because VoiceOver doesn't work well. I actually have to recommend to my clients and their customers that they need to use a PC with NVDA or Jaws for these documents to be able to get all the information. Unfortunately, most people aren't able to have, or maintain, both systems. Overall, Mac products are very high quality. This, and other issues with VoiceOver, seems to be a large gap in Apple's offerings and functionality.
I would appreciate a human response to the original email I sent about this on 7/30/2025.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
This was working a few days ago, but it has since stopped and I can't figure out why. I've tried resetting TCC, double-checking my entitlements, restarting, deleting and rebuilding, and nothing works.
My app is a sandboxed macOS SwiftUI LSUIElement app that, when invoked, checks to see if the frontmost process is Terminal, then tries to get the frontmost window’s title.
func
getFrontmostWindowTitle()
throws
-> String?
{
let trusted = AXIsProcessTrusted()
print("getFrontmostWindowTitle AX trusted: \(trusted)")
guard let app = NSWorkspace.shared.frontmostApplication else { return nil }
let appElement = AXUIElementCreateApplication(app.processIdentifier)
var focusedWindow: AnyObject?
let status = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(appElement, kAXFocusedWindowAttribute as CFString, &focusedWindow)
guard
status == .success,
let window = focusedWindow
else
{
if status == .cannotComplete
{
throw Errors.needAccessibilityPermission
}
return nil
}
var title: AnyObject?
let titleStatus = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(window as! AXUIElement, kAXTitleAttribute as CFString, &title)
guard titleStatus == .success else { return nil }
return title as? String
}
I recently renamed the app, but the Bundle ID has not yet changed. I have com.apple.security.accessibility set to YES in the Entitlements file (although i had to add it manually), and a NSAccessibilityUsageDescription string set in Info.plist.
The first time I ran this, macOS nicely prompted for permission. Now it won't do that, even when I use AXIsProcessTrustedWithOptions() to try to force it.
If I use tccutil to reset accessibility and apple events, it still doesn't prompt. If I drag my app from the build products folder to System Settings, it gets added to the system TCC DB (not the user DB). It shows an auth value of 2 for my app:
% sudo sqlite3 "/Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db" "SELECT client,auth_value FROM access WHERE service='kTCCServiceAccessibility' OR service='kTCCServiceAppleEvents';"
com.latencyzero.<redacted>|2
<redactd>
I'm at a loss as to what went wrong. I proved out the concept earlier and it worked, and have since spent a lot of time enhancing and polishing the app, and now things aren't working and I'm starting to worry.
Hi,
I am writing in the hope to receive some clarification about the rationale of the Audit type sufficientElementDescription - in context with Accessibility Audit API.
Please see my test below:
And another example in context with Xcode, where the strings visible in the UI are also set as accessible labels of their respective elements.
Thanks for your help!
How can I force VoiceOver to read parentheses for math expressions like this:
Text("(2+3)×4") // VoiceOver: Two plus three, times four
I’m looking for a way to have VoiceOver announce parentheses (e.g. “left paren”, “right paren”) without relying on NumberFormatter.Style.spellOut or .speechAlwaysIncludesPunctuation(), as both have drawbacks.
Using .spellOut breaks braille output and Rotor › Characters menu by turning numbers and symbols into words. And .speechAlwaysIncludesPunctuation() makes VoiceOver overly verbose—for example, it reads “21” as “twenty hyphen one.”
Is there a better way to selectively announce specific punctuation like parentheses while keeping numbers and symbols intact for braille and Rotor use?
I am building a language learning app for a unlisted primary language. My plan is to go with english. Any other suggestions or heads up? Check screenshot.
Its unfortunate that i have to tag a language learning app incorrectly and a tag for that language probably does not exist across the apple system.
Is it possible to position windows on the floor by changing some setting? Currently, they cannot be placed on the floor due to drag limitations.
accessibilityUserInputLabels is working fine with any view I tried this on. Meaning that the control can be toggled with the provided alternative names when using Voice Control.
When setting this property on any UIBarButtonItem though, it seems Voice Control ignores the alternative names provided by setting accessibilityUserInputLabels. For comparison, accessibilityLabel works perfectly when set on UIBarButtonItem.
Is anyone facing the same issue?
Using Xcode 16.0 (16A242) on iOS 18
Hi,I applied for the COMMUNICATION capability, but have a message that I already have the driving task app entitlement.
After that ,I have applied one more time ,there is no reply anymore.
I do not have the com.apple.developer.carplay-communication capability, that means I can not apply this capability?
What should i do next to get this capatibility?
Thanks
I’m trying to set the accessibilityActivationPoint directly on a UITableViewCell so that VoiceOver activate on a specific button inside the cell. However, this approach doesn’t seem to work.
Instead, when I override the accessibilityActivationPoint property inside the UITableViewCell subclass and return the desired point, it works as expected.
Why doesn’t setting accessibilityActivationPoint directly on the cell work, but overriding it inside the cell does? Is there a recommended approach for handling this scenario?
The following approach works,
override var accessibilityActivationPoint: CGPoint {
get {
return convert(toggleSwitch.center, to: nil)
}
set{
super.accessibilityActivationPoint = newValue
}
}
but setting accessibility point directly not works
private func configureAccessibility() {
isAccessibilityElement = true
accessibilityLabel = titleLabel.text
accessibilityTraits = .toggleButton
accessibilityActivationPoint = self.convert(toggleSwitch.center, to: self)
accessibilityValue = toggleSwitch.accessibilityValue
}
Hello
So if you use the Bulgarian keyboard, you get these characters:
явертъуиопюасдфгхйклшщзьцжбнмч
This isn’t really right for Bulgaria, because т should look like m, and д should look like g, and other characters should look like rotated or mirrored Latin characters. E.g., г should look like a backwards s.
Compare the Bulgaria Wikipedia page in Bulgarian: https://bg.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D1%8A%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F
with the Bulgaria Wikipedia page in Russian: https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F
Notice that the letters are different.
Anyhow, the ios Bulgarian font is just Russian Cyrillic, and that seems like an unintended bug rather than an intentional stylistic choice, basically.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Hello, my submission is based on Haptics. Without it the App doesn't make sense. And only real iPhone can give this opportunity. But it says that Xcode playgrounds will be tested on Simulator.
Is it indeed like this? What can I do?
Thank you in advance!
The issue described here in this stack overflow conversation is still an issue today when it comes to the read back of the last 4 digits in the phone numbers for North American numbers as minus.
Is there a solution other than overriding the accessibleLabel property?
I am encountering the following issue while working with app group preferences in my Safari web extension:
Couldn't read values in CFPrefsPlistSource<0x3034e7f80> (Domain: [MyAppGroup], User: kCFPreferencesAnyUser, ByHost: Yes, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: Yes): Using kCFPreferencesAnyUser with a container is only allowed for System Containers, detaching from cfprefsd.
I am trying to read/write shared preferences using UserDefaults with an App Group but keep running into this error. Any guidance on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated!
Has anyone encountered this before? How can I properly configure my app group preferences to avoid this issue?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Swift Packages
Messages
Xcode
Group Activities
Hey there! Hope you are starting the year with great joy.
My situation
I'm building a new product that is based on detecting certain text on screen in realtime. The product is only targeted for Mac and it's built with Swift
My problem
I need to get the exact position of a text element with the Apple Accessibility API but I can't figurate it out. I managed to get the AXUIElement where the text is placed but it's position is too broad and off target.
My discoveries so far
I've tried OCR but is too slow for what I'm building, so the only possible way I can think of is with the Accessibility API.
Thank you in advanced.
I have a TextField and entered for example "sg?!". At the TextField I set the modifier speechAlwaysIncludesPunctuation(). But when I activate VoiceOver the content of TextField is reading. The special characters don't read out.
How can I fix this?
I’m trying to understand the best practice for assigning accessibilityTraits to a UITableViewCell that users can select from a list of options.
In Apple’s first-party apps like Settings, I’ve noticed an inconsistent approach—some cells use the Button trait, while others simply announce the label along with the Selected trait when applicable, without any additional role like Button or Adjustable.
So my question is:
What is the most appropriate accessibility trait to use for a selectable table view cell that updates a selection (like a settings option)?
Is using .button the right approach, or should we rely solely on .selected?
Is there any user experience guideline from Apple that recommends one over the other?
Would love to hear how others handle this for clarity and consistency in VoiceOver behavior.
We have an electron app developed for Mac. We would like to restore the user data previously saved in downloads once user installs the app from store and first launch. But MAS has restrictions with ""com.apple.security.files.downloads.read-write". We have enabled the user access in Entitlement files and request user permission before access What options can be user to auto restore the data from downlodas?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
How to get approved my NFC based app on IOS store fast
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General