I'm developing a document editor for macOS using AppKit, which supports structured content such as titles and multiple heading levels—similar to what you see in the Pages app. I'm looking for a way to programmatically mark a specific substring within an NSTextView as a heading, so that VoiceOver can recognize it and announce it appropriately (e.g., by saying “heading” before reading the text). This would be similar in spirit to how NSAccessibilityLinkTextAttribute works for links. Is there an existing accessibility text attribute or recommended approach to achieve this behavior for headings? If not, I’d appreciate any guidance or suggestions on how best to implement this in a VoiceOver-friendly way. Thank you in advance for your help! Best regards,

The Text view seems to automatically prevent orphaned words on screen, but barring exceptional circumstances such as the font size being too large. I couldn't find any documentation on this behaviour, how to configure, and would also be very interested in how it's implemented? Thanks!

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?

Hello, I had submitted a question to clarify which components have accessibility APIs that trigger haptics for VoiceOver users https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/773182. The question stems from perhaps a more direct question about specific components: do tablists and disclosures natively intend to include haptics or screen reader hint or other state or properties to indicate to screen reader users where the component begins or ends? In some web experiences there are screen reader hint text stating "end of..." or "entering" as a way to define the boundaries of these inline dialogs. I had asked about haptics in the prior thread because I do not recall natively implemented version of this except in some haptic cues but have not experienced them consistently so I am not sure if that is an intended native Swift implementation or perhaps something custom.

I am trying to grant Input Monitoring permission using MDM (Mobile Device Management), but I am facing issues. While I am able to deny the permission, I am unable to grant it. In some profile configurator tools, I noticed a note stating: "Allows the application to use CoreGraphics and HID APIs to listen to (receive) CGEvents and HID events from all processes. Access to these events cannot be given in a profile; it can only be denied." This seems to suggest that granting Input Monitoring permission via an MDM profile may not be possible. Has anyone successfully granted Input Monitoring permission using MDM, or is there an alternative way to achieve this on managed macOS devices?

I’m trying to enroll in the Apple Developer Program as an individual. I’ve gone through the steps on the website and started the purchase process. However, after a couple of days when I return to the site, it doesn’t remember my progress — I have to start the enrollment from scratch every time. Is this expected behavior? Am I missing a step to save my progress or complete the enrollment properly? Any help or guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!

I'm looking into how to programmatically control color filters in the Accessibility settings under "System Settings" -> "Accessibility" -> "Color Filters"--in particular the "Intensity" and "Filter type" settings. As far as I have gathered, changing this setting can only be accomplished using the CoreGraphics APIs or Accessibility APIs (I've poked around GitHub, Stack Overflow, and queried some LLMs), but there doesn't seem to be a clear cut example for doing this using public facing APIs, without ripping off source code from another project wholesale or using private APIs. My goal is to overlay a color filter at either a per-application or system level to help with accessibility. If there's a way to overlay this capability on an application-by-application basis as a third-party developer, that would be the most ideal scenario. For example, modifying the look and feel/UX for Launchpad, Photos, etc, as a third-party developer without accessing the source code of the application that I'm modifying the look/feel for (with appropriate user consent of course).

We have an app under development which allows musicians to unlock contact details of people who posted about an upcoming event. The musician pays a fees to unlock this contact details. Both the musician & the post owner are registered users. We will reveal the same contact info that the post owner used for account signup verification. Questions: Is this allowed? (given that we obtain consent to share contact info to other people and clearly mention this in privacy policy) If yes, will we have to use App store in-app purchase to facilitate this transaction or are we free to use a payment processor such as Stripe.

Since UITextView does not support the zoom function, the zoom function of UITextView with addSubview is used in UIScrollView. However, when I use the link here, the text behind it is missing. Ex) https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/login\nApple Developer Login -> The text “Apple Developer Login” does not appear. If anyone has experienced the same problem as me or knows a solution, please leave a comment. Note) It is working normally in iOS16, but the text behind the link disappears in iOS18. The text is not visible, but you can copy it and paste it to retrieve the missing text.

Japanese “Hattori” TTS voice missing from Settings > General > Read & Speak > Voices > Japanese on iOS 26 Steps: Open the path above → “Hattori” is not listed and cannot be downloaded Expected: Hattori is available to download and select Actual: Hattori is absent from the catalog Regression: Was available on iOS 18.x on the same device

I've just received an email from Apple regarding the Global Accessibility Awareness Day and some forthcoming sessions to promote their accessibility features. What a joke. For many years, Apple refuses to provide the most basic accessibility requirement on macOS: LET USERS DISABLE ALL NON-CONSENSUAL UNSOLICITED ANIMATIONS AND OTHER UI CONVULSIONS. The scourge of animations started from macOS Lion. Yes, many of them can be, fortunately, disabled through some obscure Terminal commands (that is, if the user is lucky enough to discover them on some obscure internet resources). The "Reduce motion" control in System Settings is a fake option that doesn't do anything. And there are two most glaring accessibility violations that cannot be disabled: Scroll bar rollover highlight effect introduced on macOS 10.7.3. Every time you move the cursor over a scroll bar, the bar gets highlighted. It results in bringing the user's attention to random scroll bars for no reason whatsoever just because the cursor happens to pass over the bar at some point. HUNDREDS of unnecessary, annoying events of distraction daily! Expand/collapse animation of NSOutlineView (such as when we open/close a folder in the list view in the Finder, as well as any other app that's using outline views). It's extremely annoying, distracting, and time-wasting. All feedback submitted about this through the years remains mostly ignored (except for a few cases where I received some ridiculous replies from employees who, apparently, are barely familiar with Macs in general). Apple does NOT care about accessibility. Not only this, but it's obvious that Apple is, in fact, intentionally abusing those users who can't tolerate distracting, time-wasting animations and UI convulsions.

I have some doubts about how VoiceOver handles focus when the screen updates. When a new UIViewController is pushed onto a UINavigationController or presented modally, how does VoiceOver decide which element to focus on? Is there a way to control or customize this behavior? In a UISplitViewController, when an item is selected in the primary view controller, the focus should shift to the relevant content in the secondary view controller. How can we ensure that VoiceOver correctly moves focus to the right element in the secondary panel?

Currently I am not finding any API to read the status of Message Filter Extension from settings. Are we planning for any future releases ?

I'm reposting here my FB17602742, submitted yesterday: The strong wording of this message comes from years of Apple ignoring the needs of users who can't tolerate UI animations and convulsions. At this point, it's clear that Apple is either intentionally harming users like me or simply doesn't care about meeting even the most basic accessibility standards on macOS. Yes, many UI animations and convulsions can, fortunately, be disabled - but not through straightforward UI controls. Instead, users are forced to look for obscure Terminal commands found scattered across the Internet. The "Reduce motion" checkbox in System Settings is simply a fake control that doesn't do anything - instead of actually disabling all UI animations and convulsions. What's worse, two of the most offensive UI animations cannot be disabled at all. Apple has consistently dismissed requests to let users disable the following UI animations: Scroll bar rollover highlight effect (introduced on macOS 10.7.3). Every time the cursor passes over a scroll bar, it gets highlighted. This draws the user's attention to random scroll bars for no reason - just because the cursor happened to pass over them. It results in HUNDREDS of unnecessary, annoying events of distraction daily!
 Expand/collapse animation of NSOutlineView (e.g., when opening/closing folders in the list view in the Finder, or any other app using outline views). This animation is extremely distracting, irritating, and time-wasting. Global Accessibility Awareness Day is approaching. Dear Apple, Please adhere to the most basic accessibility standards. Stop the needless suffering of countless users like me. Let us disable the two aforementioned UI convulsions. Thank you for your attention to the issue.

I have screen in my app that can represented by following layout, I would like this screen to be possible to navigate with full keyboard access but there is unexpected behavior: Path: Tap "Tab" on keyboard -> whole scrollview is targeted and inside the first button1 is selected. Arrow down -> selection changes to button3 Arrow up -> selection changes back to button1 So button2 is always skipped, there is no way to navigate to it by arrows left/right. Using Tab+F and searching "button2", button2 is correctly selected, so it's selectable but for some reason not findable by going through elements. Putting empty text in Text views cause buttons to be vertically aligned and then everything works correctly but it is not an option. public struct BugReportView: View { public var body: some View { ScrollView { VStack(spacing: .zero) { Button("button1", action: { }) HStack { Text("some text") Text("some text2") Button("button2", action: { }) } Button("button3", action: { }) } } } }

I need to direct text-to-speech generated audio from my app simultaneously to a bluetooth speaker device AND to the internal iPad speaker. The app uses AVSpeechSynthesizer and several third party speech engines. How best to do this? I noticed the outputChannels property on AVSpeechSynthesizer...are there any examples of how to use this?

Hello I tried implementing the ASAM for macOS as per apple guidelines with configuration profile mentioned here but didn't had any success. Then Apple suggested to use requestGuidedAccessSession in macOS but that is only supported in macOS Catalyst but that also didn't work with valid config profiles too. Did anyone get success with ASAM mode without assessment entitltlement?

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?

A Summary of the WWDC25 Group Lab - Accessibility At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for Accessibility. Accessibility Nutrition Labels are a really big step forward for the experience people have on the App Store to find apps that will work for them. How should developers get started with Accessibility Nutrition Labels? A good starting point is to review the Accessibility Nutrition Label evaluation criteria on App Store Connect Help. It's a concise document, roughly 10 pages, and you can approach it section by section after the introduction. Even with prior experience using accessibility features like VoiceOver, the criteria offer valuable insights that might not be immediately apparent. For those newer to accessibility, a good entry point might be one of the visual feature labels, such as Dark Interface, which is a popular and frequently used feature. Which accessibility features can I indicate support for in Accessibility Nutrition Labels? The accessibility features covered include support for assistive technologies like VoiceOver and Voice Control, media enhancements such as captions and audio descriptions, and display accommodations. These display accommodations cover options like larger text, dark interface, differentiating without color alone, sufficient contrast, and reduced motion. With the new Accessibility Nutrition Labels, will app store reviewers validate what we select? The Accessibility Nutrition Label can be edited at any time without requiring a new app submission. However, if an app inaccurately claims feature support, App Review may contact the developer and request an update to the label or the app. Are there any updates to tools for analyzing the accessibility of our apps? Although there aren't new updates this year, continued support for Accessibility Audits is available through Xcode's built-in Accessibility Inspector. XCTest also supports accessibility audits, enabling developers to test app accessibility with every build. These audits analyze aspects like contrast, dynamic type, text clipping, element labels, and more within each view. For a deeper dive, the "Perform accessibility audits for your app" session from WWDC 2023 is a valuable resource. What are accessibility features you wish more people integrated? Accessibility features encompassing user input labels optimized for voice control, keyboard navigation and shortcuts, and dynamic type support could be more used to benefit users. What were some of the biggest accessibility challenges your team encountered while developing Liquid Glass? Apple is known for its innovation and strives to deliver a high-quality experience for everyone. Accessibility is considered a core component of visual design from the outset. For example, the Liquid Glass design inherently supports reduced transparency and increased contrast. As design continues to evolve, user feedback submitted through Feedback Assistant is invaluable. How does Liquid Glass respond to contrast? Especially for text and low contrast environments. Content legibility is a crucial aspect of the Liquid Glass design. It inherently supports accessibility features like reduced transparency and increased contrast. Your feedback during the beta period and beyond is essential to ensuring Liquid Glass provides a great experience within your apps. What are some Apple apps that stand out for their accessibility? Apps like Keynote in the iWork suite offer groundbreaking VoiceOver features to enhance creative productivity for all users. Assistive Access makes core apps such as Messages, Photos, Camera, Phone, and Music more accessible. Podcasts provides transcripts to broaden its reach, and frameworks like SwiftUI ensure that apps built with the latest UI frameworks have excellent built-in accessibility.

After updating to the iOS 26 Beta version, the screenshot option within the AssistiveTouch menu has stopped working. Tapping on the "Screenshot" icon does not perform any action.