OrchardNest

Accessibility traits on iOS is the system by which assistive technologies know how to present your interface to your users. The exact experience will vary between assistive technologies, in some cases they may change the intonation of what...

When testing your app with VoiceOver or Switch Control, a common test is to ensure you can reach every interactive element on screen. If these assistive technologies can’t focus all of your buttons how will your customers be able to...

Disclosure: Evinced has paid for my time in writing this blog, and I have provided them feedback on the version of their tool reviewed and an early beta. I agreed to this because I believe in the product they are offering. Testing your app...

This is a common question I get asked - how do I go about arranging an accessibility audit for my app so I know where I can make improvements? If you’re truly looking for an answer to that question then I have a few options for you...

I’ll admit, adding UI testing to an app that currently doesn’t have it included is probably stretching the definition of quick win, but the aim here isn’t 100% coverage - not right away anyway. Start small and add to your...

If you have a regulatory requirement to provide accessibility in your app (spoiler, you do) the chances are it will say you have a requirement to reach WCAG AA. While this is likely meaningless to anyone other an accessibility...

Many people don’t realise dark mode is an accessibility feature. It’s often just considered a nice to have, a cool extra feature that power users will love. But dark mode is also a valuable accessibility feature. Some types of...

Images are a major part of our apps. They add meaning and interest, they give your app character and context. The adage is that a picture is worth a thousand words. But if you can’t see the image clearly, how do you know what those...

How many shades of grey do you use in your app? OK, maybe thats a bit cruel towards designers, grey is a great colour, but the problem with grey is that it can be deceptively difficult to distinguish from a background. And this problem is...

Each year at WWDC Xcode Santa brings us exciting new APIs to play with, and this year our accessibility present is Customized Accessibility Content. This API flew under the radar a little, I’m told this is because it’s so new there...

The Accessibility Review series uses real world apps to provide examples of common accessibility issues and provide tips on how to fix them. Each of the developers has kindly volunteered their app to be tested. Huh? is a dictionary and...

The Accessibility Review series uses real world apps to provide examples of common accessibility issues and provide tips on how to fix them. Each of the developers has kindly volunteered their app to be tested. Figure Case is an app to...

The Accessibility Review series uses real world apps to provide examples of common accessibility issues and provide tips on how to fix them. Each of the developers has kindly volunteered their app to be tested. Daily Dictionary is an app...

Attributed accessibility labels are an incredible tool for making some next-level accessible experiences. They let you tell VoiceOver not just what to speak, but how to say it too. Using the accessibilityAttributedLabel property you can...

A good accessibility label lets your customer know exactly what a control does in as few words as possible, without having to rely on implied context. Don’t Add the Element Type iOS already knows your button is a button and your...

There’s a few circumstances when you’ll want to set your own accessibility label, such as… An interactive element that you haven’t given a text value to, such as an image button. An interactive element with a long...

This blog was inspired by Jeff Watkins' series of blogs on UIButton. UIButton is a fundamental part of building interfaces on iOS. So much so, that it probably doesn’t get the love it deserves. But it’s also really powerful and...

A few months ago I shared a project I’d been working on for iOS exploring the accessibility API available on that platform. The Android accessibility API is equally large and full featured, and really deserves the same treatment. So...

I was supposed to be attending the 2020 CSUN Assistive Technology conference to present a couple of talks, unfortunately with COVID-19 starting to take hold at that time, I wasn’t able to attend. In lieu of attending I decided to...

iOS' UIAccessibility API is huge. I like to think I know it pretty well, but I’m always being surprised by discovering features I previously had no idea about. Like many things on iOS, the documentation for UIAccessibility is not...

Live Regions are one of my favourite accessibility features on Android. They’re a super simple solution to a common accessibility problem that people with visual impairments can stumble across. Say you have a game app, really any...

A11yUITests is an extension to XCTestCase that adds tests for common accessibility issues that can be run as part of an XCUITest suite. I’ve written a detailed discussion of the tests available if you’re interested in...

For a while now I’ve been looking at possibilities for automated accessibility testing on iOS. Unfortunately, I’ve not found any option so far that I’m happy with. I am a big fan of Apple’s XCUI Test framework. Although it has its...

This is a personally curated list of resources I have used and think others may find helpful too. I’m always looking for new high quality mobile accessibility and inclusion resources to add here. Please share any you find with me via...

Laura’s introduction to web accessibility jumped out to me because it’s available as an audiobook. Being dyslexic I struggle to read, so prefer to listen to audiobooks where available. Unfortunately, most technical books...

Accessibility is a long word. It’s not the simplest of words to read or to spell, so it seems like a word that would be a good candidate for abbreviation. The common abbreviation of accessibility is a11y. We take the A and Y from the...

About Mobile A11y Mobile A11y is a collection of blogs and resources about how we as mobile developers can improve accessibility on mobile devices. From time to time the blog might also touch on related topics such as digital inclusion,...

Accessibility is important. We can take that as a given. But as iOS devs we’re not always sure how to make the most of the accessibility tools that Apple have provided us. We’re lucky as iOS developers that we work on such a...

Semantic views are not new to SwiftUI, but changes in SwiftUI mean creating them is simple. Semantic views are not so much a language feature. They’re more a technique for manipulating the accessible user interface and improving the...

SwiftUI allows us to read environmental values that might affect how we want to present ­­our UI. Things like size classes and locale for example. We also get the ability to read some of the user’s chosen accessibility settings...

When a customer enables an assistive technology to navigate your app the interface that technology navigates isn’t exactly the same as the one visible on the screen. They’re navigating a modified version that iOS creates...

Accessibility traits are a group of attributes on a SwiftUI element. They inform assistive technologies how to interact with the element or present it to your customer. Each element has a selection of default traits, but you might need to...