Explore best practices for creating inclusive apps for users of Apple accessibility features and users from diverse backgrounds.

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Accessibility inspector Audit with simulator
I'm experiencing an issue with the Accessibility Inspector. It's worked fine. Since the update, I'm unable to perform an audit while in the Simulator. I have the following message: "Select a target app to view Accessibility warnings and audit information." However, VoiceOver and Dynamic Type functionalities are working fine. The audit only works when I test on my iPhone. How can I connect the target for the audit? Thank you. Accessibility Inspector V5 Simuator 15.2
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657
Feb ’24
xcstrings file in not being updated
I'm using Xcode 15.2 and have migrated my (macOS) project to use an xcstrings file a while back. Now when I check the xcstrings file, all items are marked as "stale". When I add new localized strings in code, they don't show up in the xcstrings file. The xcstrings file is built correctly (into .lproj/Localizable.strings) when building. Where can I check which source files are checked to update xcstrings status? "xcstringstool" appears to have a "sync" feature which reads "stringsdata" files, but there is no information in the xcstringstool help on where the stringsdata files come from. If I create a new project I can see a "stringsdata" file being generated for each source file in the intermediate build products folder.
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1.4k
Feb ’24
Important Accessibility Option - Native Keyboard Input
I want to trigger a "pinch" where I can select whatever it is I'm looking at via pressing spacebar on a bluetooth keyboard that is paired with the apple vision pro. Is this feasible in Xcode or Unity (VisionOS development) where I not only have access to see native keyboard presses, but also can see the gaze position (or what it's currently highlighting/focusing on) without accessing it through an interaction event. If keyboard press, then select item being gazed at. We wont have "pinch" available for people with hand/arm impairments that will trigger an interaction event, and there are an array of accessibility devices that send keyboard commands that would be able to aid in this. Apple should have this ability in it's native settings, specifically with using keyboard commands as well. This app would demonstrate that ability without it being native yet, and any help would be greatkly appreciated :)
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464
Mar ’24
Swift Charts Accessibility Bug
I've been working on migrating some graphics to Swift Charts for an app I work on. However I've been noticing strange behavior when it comes to VoiceOver. If I create a bar chart and use: BarMark(x: .value("Month", x, unit: .month), y: ...) While the chart looks fine, the voice over values seem to follow arbitrary values set for the bin. From what I can tell they are following the underlying bin values that Swift Charts uses to provide spacing between bars. For instance, this simple example: let monthlyRevenueData = [ (x: try! Date("2024-01-01T00:00:00Z", strategy: .iso8601), y: (income: 55000, revenue: 124000), id: UUID()), (x: try! Date("2024-02-01T00:00:00Z", strategy: .iso8601), y: (income: 58000, revenue: 130000), id: UUID()), (x: try! Date("2024-03-01T00:00:00Z", strategy: .iso8601), y: (income: 59000, revenue: 120000), id: UUID()), ] struct ContentView: View { var body: some View { Chart(monthlyRevenueData, id: \.id) { (x, y, _) in BarMark(x: .value("Month", x, unit: .month), y: .value("Income", y.income)) .foregroundStyle(.green) BarMark(x: .value("Month", x, unit: .month), y: .value("Revenue", y.revenue)) } } } #Preview { ContentView() } Results in the Voice Over reading "January 14th 2024 at 12 AM to January 28th 2024 at 12am ..." despite the fact that the data should be for the entire month of Jan. Is there any way to get VoiceOver to read the input data rather than relying on how the chart is formatted? Preferably without the need to remove all visual spacing between the bars. Video link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11mxCl3wR2HzoOaihOvci-vZk4zgG1d39/view?usp=drive_link
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523
Mar ’24
xcode 15 LS instead of LF in the xcloc files
Hi, I'm parsing iOS localization files and during tests with xcode 15 i noticed new lines appear in the xcloc files with LS instead of the usual LF i was used to. Questions: is this the default behavior in xcode 15? Has this changed with this version? is this controllable by any settings? Disclaimer: not a iOS developer here, please pardon any confusions and have patience.
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528
Mar ’24
(API to) switching device/display using keyboard with Universal Control
Universal Control works to share keyboard and mouse from one mac to another, but actually switching seems to require physically moving the mouse to the other display. Ideally, I'd like Apple to support some command available via command-key equivalents to cycle to other devices in the way that we can cycle through applications or windows. Seeking to program that directly, I was unable to find any Universal Control API's on point. Are there any? I can imagine restricted this to the OS only for security. In case there are display-driven API's, I see that system settings/displays shows all the displays from all devices, but I was unable to find a UI or API's to change focus to another display (other than moving the mouse to select the display). When I list displays programmatically, I only see the device-local displays. In case there are device-driven APIs: I can initialize a bluetooth session and secure credentials, but interaction seems to be unavailable.
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621
Mar ’24
Deep link to Accessibility->Personal Voice
My app speaks and offers the user the ability to use their Personal Voice - but if the user says "No" when I first ask them for permission to use their Personal Voice, I can never ask them again. So if they change their mind later - they have to go to Settings->Accessibility->Personal Voice to toggle the permission for my app. To make things easier for them, I would like to be able to pop open that page for them - but I don't know how to create the URL for it. Is it even possible? The closest I've been able to get is to open the settings page for my app (Settings->My App Settings) with: guard let settingsUrl = URL(string: UIApplication.openSettingsURLString) else {return } if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(settingsUrl) { UIApplication.shared.open(settingsUrl) } Thanks in advance!
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459
Mar ’24
ISSUE: iPhone validation issue while entering English Characters using Japanese Keyboard
Application: HTML,Javascript,Angular web Application Issue: In Iphone/Ipad while trying to enter English characters using Japanese keyboard in the input field the japanese keyboard freezes and stops working after entering the first character. Root Cause: Two validations given in the onInput call back method causes the issue. when the validation are removed keyboard is working fine 1.for converting lowercase letters to uppercase 2.Some Character are not allowed so they are replaced after input
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704
Mar ’24
Accessibility API permissions on sandboxed app
Hello 👋, I am quite new in the Apple development world, so please forgive me if I am saying something wrong. I am working on a macOs application which aims to act mainly as an assistive window switcher. In order to do so it leverages on AXUIElementCopyAttributeValues and AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue, especially the former to retrieve other application's window titles and the latter to set and focus a target main window. I read online, according to Apple Store guidelines, that app to be accepted in App Store must be sandboxed. And as I read in several forums there may not be a way to use accessibility features within sandbox. So, first question, based on this I would like to know if there is a way to achieve the same without accessibility features? Currently the only thing which does not work is the permission prompt, but an user may also enable Accessibility permissions under Privacy & Security for a certain app. May the app pass the review process, supposing no prompt will be requested to the user, but a "Getting started" will inform and guide the user to set the permissions? Thanks in advance 🙏
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749
Apr ’24
navigator.language returns system language only from iOS 17.4
I am developing a web application that works on webview. From iOS 13, users could set a specific language for each individual app, and every webview-based application knew the application language through navigator.language. However, in iOS 17.4, this API returns the system language instead of the individual app's language in web applications. Is this an official change in iOS 17.4 or a bug?
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1.3k
Apr ’24
Can't get Text Input Source region designator
I have a macOS application with a minimum version of macOS 12.0. I need to be able to get the current keyboard region designator. Example: The user selects a input source of English Canadian. What I want as a result of this fact is en-CA locale identifier. I get the current keyboard language with the following code func keyboardLanguage() -> String?{ let keyboard = TISCopyCurrentKeyboardInputSource().takeRetainedValue() let languagesPtr = TISGetInputSourceProperty(keyboard, kTISPropertyInputSourceLanguages)! let languages = Unmanaged<AnyObject>.fromOpaque(languagesPtr).takeUnretainedValue() as? [String] return languages?.first } This returns the language as en, but I don't see how I can get the region from Text Input Sources. I can get the input source id let keyboard = TISCopyCurrentKeyboardInputSource().takeRetainedValue() let idPtr = TISGetInputSourceProperty(keyboard, kTISPropertyInputSourceID)! let id = Unmanaged<AnyObject>.fromOpaque(idPtr).takeUnretainedValue() as? String print(String(describing: id)) This prints com.apple.keylayout.Canadian which points to the Canadian region but is not a region designator. I can possible parse this id and map it to a region designator but first I'm not sure if I will capture all of the regions and secondly what happens if the format of the id changes? If someone can point to the correct API to use it will be much appreciated.
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586
Apr ’24
Request to Add Missing Characters for South Azerbaijani (azb) Language in Persian Keyboard
Dear Apple Developers, I am writing to kindly request the addition of a few missing characters to the Persian keyboard in order to better support the South Azerbaijani language (ISO 639-3 code: azb). South Azerbaijani is a Turkic language spoken by over 30 million people living primarily in northwestern Iran. The missing characters needed for proper South Azerbaijani language support are: ؽ (U+063D ARABIC LETTER GHAIN) وْ (U+0648 ARABIC LETTER WAW, U+0640 ARABIC TATWEEL) ۇ (U+06C7 ARABIC LETTER U WITH SMALL V) ۆ (U+06C6 ARABIC LETTER OW WITH SMALL V) Currently, ؤ (U+0624 ARABIC LETTER U WITH HAMZA ABOVE) is accessible by long-pressing the و key, which is great. However, the other characters are missing. My suggestions would be: Add ؽ to the long-press options for the ی key Add وْ, ۇ, and ۆ to the long-press options for the و key Introducing these few missing characters would greatly enhance the typing experience for South Azerbaijani users and allow for proper rendering of all letters in this language spoken by millions. Thank you for your consideration. I would be happy to provide any additional information needed. This small update would mean a lot to the South Azerbaijani community. Respectfully, Araz Gholami
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572
Apr ’24
Voiceover with Indian voice
Hi, I am facing issue where voiceover accessibility does not work for some of the labels if I select any Indian voice from settings (Accessibility -> voiceover -> speech -> voice -> ENGLISH (INDIA)), it works for other countries' voices though for the same label. Caption panel also shows correct accessibility label but it just doesn't announce it.
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408
Apr ’24
Best way to determine region?
My app downloads files from AWS S3. What we'd like to do is replicate our files across several of Amazon's data centers (regions) to put the content closer to our users, who are worldwide. What I need is a way to determine in a very ***** way which data center would be best to use. For example North America, Europe, Asia, etc. I don't want to use location services since I don't really need the exact location. Is there a simpler way to do this? I suppose I could use the localization settings, but I don't think that's really guaranteed to represent their actual location. Thanks, Frank
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567
May ’24
Is it possible to enable Dwell Control on Vision OS within your app?
Hi everyone, I'm currently developing an application for VisionOS and I'm interested in implementing Dwell Control to improve accessibility for users with limited mobility. Specifically, I would like to include a toggle within my app's interface that allows users to enable or disable Dwell Control at the app level. I've gone through the VisionOS documentation and the general accessibility guidelines, but I couldn't find detailed information on how to programmatically enable or disable Dwell Control within an app. Here are my main questions: Is it possible to programmatically enable or disable Dwell Control from within a VisionOS app? If so, what are the specific API calls or methods needed to achieve this functionality? Are there any best practices or additional resources for implementing Dwell Control in VisionOS that you could point me to? Thanks!
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478
May ’24
Keyboard shortcuts iPad cannot be used until screen is pressed.
Hello I have this issue where I have "shortcut keys" that I have added to a ViewController. When navigated to the ViewController I cannot use the "shortcut keys" right away. I first need to "press" anywhere on the screen to be able to use the shortcut. I use this code: - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; UIKeyCommand* commandA = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:@"a" modifierFlags:UIKeyModifierCommand action:@selector(handleCommand:)]; [self addKeyCommand:commandA]; } - (void)handleCommand:(UIKeyCommand *)keyCommand { // Hangup call. [self btnIncomingAnswerPressed:NULL]; } I am not sure why this happens, but I it would be really good if a user could use a shortcut key as soon as they navigate to the ViewControllor, instead of first have to press anywhere on the app.
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560
May ’24
Accessing Children of USDZ Model in SwiftUI
Hi everyone, I'm developing a visionOS app using SwiftUI and RealityKit. I'm facing a challenge with accessing the children of a USDZ model. Scenario: I can successfully load and display a USDZ model in my RealityView. When I import the model into Reality Composer Pro, I can access and manipulate its individual parts (children) using the scene hierarchy. However, if I directly load the USDZ model from the Navigation tab in my project, I cannot seem to access the children programmatically. Question: Is there a way to access and manipulate the children of a USDZ model loaded directly from the Navigation tab in SwiftUI for visionOS? Additional Information: I've explored using Entity(named: "childName", in: realityKitContentBundle), but this only works for the main entity. I'm open to alternative approaches if directly accessing children isn't feasible. Thanks in advance for any insights or suggestions! Best, Siddharth [Edited by Moderator]
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877
May ’24