I have a UITextField in my application for entering a state. If I tap on it, a UIPickerView pops up and let's the user select a state (but they can still type too).
The issue relates to Full Keyboard Access. If we select the UITextField using an external keyboard, the UIPickerView appears, but in order to get to it the user has to tab through the whole view controller to get to the UIPickerView at the end.
What would be nice is to a) move focus directly to the UIPickerView (have it highlighted in blue and scrollable right away with keyboard) or b) make the UIPickerView the next view that's accessible when tabbing over or using the arrow keys.
I've tried using:
UIAccessibility notifications (both .screenChanged and .layoutChanged, with and without a delay). This ended up only announcing the view, but didn't help with full keyboard access.
Making the UIPickerView a first responder when it appears.
Attempting to change the accessibilityElements order (but with so many views and views within views, this isn't really a viable option either).
Pressing tab + -> (tab and right arrow button) will quickly take the user to the end of the chain of accessibility elements, in other words, to the UIPickerView. But there has to be a cleaner way of just automatically setting the focus to the UIPickerView or making it the next element by pressing the arrow key.
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The accessibility nutrition labels seem like a great feature. I don't see keyboard access mentioned, are there plans to add this into the accessibility nutrition labels? To emphasise that keyboard accessibility is not just for desktop computers, apps need it too.
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: { })
}
}
}
}
Hey everyone!
I am developing a screen time limit app to help people spend less time in distracting apps.
It works this way: people choose unhealthy apps for them and opposite productivity apps. In the app you can exchange time spent on healthy habits to scroll or use other distracting apps.
This idea was loved by social media, and the app already has 100k followers on social media without even being launched yet.
So I am waiting just for one feature permission from Apple, and they have not given me any answer since I applied 3 weeks ago.
There are a lot of similar apps on the market, and this feature exists in other screen time limit apps.
Why is app blocking permission needed?
Time Exchange Functionality:
Users independently select which apps are productive and which are distracting for them.
The system blocks the "negative" apps until the user accumulates enough time in the "positive" ones. This encourages healthy device usage.
Full User Control:
All apps to be blocked are manually selected by the user in the settings.
The extension does not impose any restrictions without explicit permission.
Transparency and Security:
Blocking happens locally, with no data collected about app usage.
We adhere to Apple’s privacy policy.
Compliance with App Store Guidelines:
We understand that app blocking is a sensitive feature, but in our case it:
Is used for the benefit of the user (digital detox, productivity improvement).
Does not interfere with system processes or other developers’ apps.
Does not misuse access to APIs.
My question to the forum is:
Did you have similar problems, and how did you resolve them?
Are there any ways to speed up the process or contact someone from the approval team directly?
Should I give up and release it on Android?
I am very disappointed and frustrated. Hope to get some useful tips.
Thank you very much!
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Hello,
I'm currently unable to access App Store Connect. When I try to open https://appstoreconnect.apple.com, I receive the following error message:
“appstoreconnect.apple.com is currently unable to handle this request.”
I’ve tried the following steps, but the issue persists:
Cleared browser cache and cookies
Tried different browsers (Safari, Chrome)
Attempted from multiple devices and networks
Is this a known issue or is there any workaround available?
Would appreciate any help or update on the current status.
Thank you,
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
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,
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Hi everyone,
My team and I are developing an accessibility-focused VisionOS app (MindTap) as part of a university project, aiming to support individuals with Locked-In Syndrome using Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) signals to trigger interactions (e.g., tapping) within the Apple Vision Pro environment.
Problem 1: Simulating Eye Tracking in Simulator
We are testing onHover with Send pointer to the device under I/O > Input in the simulator, and while it mostly works (a bit laggy), we found that onHover won't function on the actual Vision Pro hardware. From what I understand, we should be using FocusState for proper gaze interaction, but testing this requires the physical device. Is there any workaround or official Apple-recommended way to simulate Focus-based gaze detection without a real Vision Pro?
Problem 2: WebSocket-triggered "Click" doesn't work outside the app
We successfully use WebSocket to send a custom signal (a "1" from the brain signal device) to trigger an action inside our app. However, when the user opens a third-party app like Apple News, the WebSocket-triggered "click" no longer works.
We suspect this is due to sandbox restrictions or lack of system-level permissions.
Is it possible in anyway to:
Trigger interaction events outside the app using custom input (like BCI via Websocket)?
Access system-wide click/tap simulation APIs from within VisionOS apps
Integrate this with accessibility services (like Voice Control or AssistiveTouch)
We'd appreciate any official guidance or tips from others building similar accessibility apps with alternative input methods in VisionOS.
Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide!
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Xcode
Accessibility
iPad and iOS apps on visionOS
Double-tap three fingers and drag to change zoom” should suppress “Three Finger to Drag”. Currently these gestures are triggered simultaneously, for no real reasons. I saw different behaviors for different environments, but none is desired.
Current and desired behavior:
This seems an issue so I filed a feedback.
I’m working on a macOS Accessibility setup for a French-speaking user and I’ve hit a wall. (I'm not a developper and I'm trying to help my kid with dyslexia)
I successfully built a custom word prediction panel using the Panel Editor (Keyboard) in macOS Accessibility > Keyboard > Accessibility Keyboard.
Here’s what I have so far:
• The prediction panel works system-wide: I can use it to type in Finder, Safari, Notes, TextEdit, and even browser search bars.
• The panel appears above all applications and suggestions show up correctly.
• However, it does not work inside Google Docs (tested in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox). Selecting a word from the panel does nothing in the Docs editor.
I suspect this is because:
• Google Docs does not use a standard macOS text input field.
• Docs is a web app that relies on custom JavaScript editors, contentEditable elements, and canvas rendering, so macOS Accessibility APIs (AXTextField, AXInsertText, etc.) don’t register or inject text events.
• Accessibility tools like the Accessibility Keyboard rely on native macOS text input methods, which don’t hook into Google Docs’ custom editor.
Important:
I’m not a programmer. I’d like to know if there is an easy fix or option in macOS, Google Chrome, or Google Docs that would make my custom prediction panel work, before going into custom development.
Technical setup:
• MacBook Air (M2, 2022)
• RAM: 8 GB
• macOS: Sequoia 15.3.1
• Language: French (system and keyboard)
• Accessibility Keyboard: Enabled via Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard
• Custom panel: Built using Panel Editor (Keyboard), named “Philemon Prédiction”
• Browsers tested: Chrome, Safari, Firefox (same issue)
• Behavior: Panel is visible, suggestions appear, but inserting text does nothing in Google Docs
Has anyone worked around this limitation? Is there a simple setting, workaround, or accessibility option to bridge macOS Accessibility input with Google Docs’ editor?
Thanks a lot!
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
It’s very annoying but on my iPhone 12 Pro I keep getting the accessibility app with the microphone on and it keeps opening the app by itself and it’s a blank screen and every time I close it it just reopens. I don’t know why it keeps doing this, but it drives me crazy. Does anyone know what else to do? I also have the beta iOS 26 but it’s been doing this even with the past update.
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 am currently trying to get my app ready for full external keyboard support, while testing I found an issue with the native DatePicker.
Whenever I enter the DatePicker with an external keyboard it only jumps to the time picker and I am not able to move away from it. Arrow keys don't work, tab and control + tab only move me to the toolbar and back.
This is how they look like
private var datePicker: some View {
DatePicker(
"",
selection: date,
in: minDate...,
displayedComponents: [.date]
)
.fixedSize()
.accessibilityIdentifier("\(datePickerLabel).DatePicker")
}
private var timePicker: some View {
DatePicker(
"",
selection: date,
in: minDate...,
displayedComponents: [.hourAndMinute]
)
.fixedSize()
.accessibilityIdentifier("\(datePickerLabel).TimePicker")
}
private var datePickerLabelView: some View {
Text(datePickerLabel.localizedString)
.accessibilityIdentifier(datePickerLabel)
}
And we implement it like this in the view:
HStack {
datePickerLabelView
Spacer()
datePicker
timePicker
}
Does anyone know how to fix this behavior? Is it our fault or is it the system? The issue comes up both in iOS 18 and 26.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
External Accessory
iOS
Accessibility
SwiftUI
I have subscribed to the developer program, but it’s already been a day and it still shows “is not enrolled in the Apple Developer Program.”
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I’m developing an iOS app, and I’ve noticed that when the user enables Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Color Filters → Grayscale, my app icon loses a lot of visual contrast. The original colored version looks fine, but in grayscale it appears “flat” and harder to distinguish, unlike a pure black-and-white design.
What I want to achieve:
Ensure the app icon remains visually clear and high-contrast even when iOS renders it in grayscale.
Ideally, provide an alternate “high-contrast” app icon version when grayscale mode is enabled.
What I’ve tried:
Increased color contrast in the original icon design.
Added outlines and stronger shapes.
Tested with grayscale filters in design tools.
Researched Asset Catalog and alternate icons, but found no documented API to detect or respond to grayscale mode.
Questions:
Is there any API in iOS that allows detecting when the system is in grayscale mode so that I can programmatically switch to an alternate app icon?
If not, are there Apple-recommended best practices for designing app icons that still look clear in grayscale?
Are there any accessibility guidelines specifically addressing icon design for grayscale or color-blind modes?
Additional info:
iOS version tested: iOS 17.5
Development in Swift + SwiftUI, using Asset Catalog for icons.
I am aware that iOS supports alternate icons via setAlternateIconName, but I haven’t found a trigger for grayscale mode.
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.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
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).
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
I have an HTML select that has Spanish text in the options.
When VoiceOver reads the selected option (unopened), it switches to Spanish as expected.
However, when you open the select box and browse through the options, it uses the English voice to read the Spanish text.
I have tried adding lang on to the select tag and the option tag but neither helps
https://codepen.io/grahamfowles/pen/VYYRxMK
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Please refer to Feedback report: FB19701007
The Personal Voice file created in English changes to either Spanish or Chinese and no longer works properly. This has been happening since Beta 1 of iOS/iPadOS 26.
I have been unable to pinpoint what causes this to occur. Possibly downloading foreign voices to a device or using different voices via AVSpeechSynthesizer.
I run an app in Xcode on my device that prints to the console info about the installed voices. Initially after creation here is the output:
Voice Identifier: com.apple.speech.personalvoice.16173F8D-DFB0-4024-98CC-69D965FD96A4
Language: en-US
Then I hear a Spanish accent and find this:
Voice Identifier: com.apple.speech.personalvoice.16173F8D-DFB0-4024-98CC-69D965FD96A4
Language: es-MX
Currently it isn't working and here is the output:
Voice Identifier: com.apple.speech.personalvoice.16173F8D-DFB0-4024-98CC-69D965FD96A4
Language: zh-CN
Note that the voice file on all three above is the same. No matter what the user does, the created voice file should never be able to change languages. On my test devices I reset them all by erasing all content and settings and creating a new English Personal Voice and the issue persists.
A side issue is the toggle share across devices doesn't remain off if turned off. I tried to not share to see if that could be the cause, but the toggle turns on automatically. It won’t remain off.
Hello,
Whenever I put accessibility focus on an image and if image has some text in it, voiceover reads that text along with image's accessibility label.
Is there a way to programmatically turn off text recognition on images for accessibility?
I couldn't find any relevant accessibility API's that could help here.
Thanks!
On recent versions of macOS, when a window is being shared (via the system screen-capture APIs), the OS sometimes shows a small "shared window" badge in the title bar.
I’ve noticed that this indicator is not consistent:
For some windows, the badge reliably appears when they are being shared.
For other windows, the badge never appears, even though the window is actively shared.
In particular, windows that use a standard system title bar seem to show the indicator more often, while windows with custom-drawn or non-standard chrome do not.
My questions are:
What are the exact conditions under which macOS decides to draw the “shared window” indicator in a window’s title bar?
Is this strictly tied to certain NSWindow styles or masks (e.g. titled vs borderless)?
Is there any API or flag I can use to detect programmatically whether a given window will display this system indicator when shared?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General