Video examples

iOS Voiceover

Android Talkback

iOS

There is no native dropdown element for iOS. The notes below are suggestions and accessibility guidance.

Developer notes

• A dropdown is a button that opens a list of options. When an option is chosen, it displays in the field as the value
• The difference between a menu and dropdown is a menu item performs an action when activated. A dropdown item only replaces the current option
• The screen reader focus moves directly to first option in dropdown upon double tapping the dropdown button and is confined in the list.
• Sometimes, a hidden “dismiss context menu” button after the last item is available to close it.
• Focus should go back to the triggering dropdown button, displaying the new option
• There must be a visible label for the dropdown field that is not a placeholder and it describes the purpose of the dropdown.
• The screen reader focus also remains confined in the dropdown list
• The state of expanded or collapsed should be announced

Name

• Programmatic name describes the purpose of the control.
• If visible text label exists, the programmatic name should match the visible text label.
  • Note: Setting a programmatic name while a visible text label exists may cause VoiceOver to duplicate the announcement of the name. If this happens, hide the visible text label from VoiceOver recognition
• When naming a button, do not add “button” to the programmatic name (label). Assigning “Button” as the role will handle this announcement.
  • Incorrect announcement: “Submit button, Button”
  • Correct announcement: “Submit, Button”

• Placeholder or value text is NOT the programmatic name

• UIKit
  • You can programmatically set the visible label with setTitle().
    • The button’s title will overwrite the button’s accessibilityLabel.
  • If a visible label is not applicable in this case, set the button’s accessibilityLabel to the label of your choice.
    • To do this in Interface Builder, set the label using the Identity Inspector
  • To hide labels from VoiceOver programmatically, set the label’s isAccessibilityElement property to false
  • To hide labels from VoiceOver using Interface Builder, uncheck Accessibility Enabled in the Identity Inspector.
• SwiftUI
  • If no visible label, use view modifier accessibilityLabel(_:).
  • If button has icon(s), hide the icon(s) from VoiceOver by using view modifier accessibilityHidden(true).

Role

• When using non-native controls (custom controls), roles will need to be manually coded.

• One option is to use a table view and a button inside a UIStackView

• UIKit
  • Use UIButton
  • If necessary, set accessibilityTraits to .button.
• SwiftUI
  • Use native Button view
  • If necessary, use view modifier accessibilityAddTraits(.isButton) to assign the role as Button.
  • If applicable, use view modifier accessibilityRemoveTraits(:) to remove unwanted traits.

Groupings

• Group visible label with button, if applicable, to provide a programmatic name for the button.

• UIKit
  1. Ensure that the child elements of the overarching view you want to group in has their isAccessibilityElement properties set to false.
  2. Set isAccessibilityElement to true for the parent view. Then, adjust accessibilityLabel and accessibilityTraits accordingly.
     • If frame does not exist due to custom button, use accessibilityFrameInContainer to set the custom control’s frame to the parent view’s container or view of your choice.
       • You can also unionize two frames with frame.union (i.e. titleLabel.frame.union(subtitleLabel.frame)).
     • Use shouldGroupAccessibilityElement for a precise order if the native order should be disrupted.
     • Use shouldGroupAccessibilityChildren to indicate whether VoiceOver must group its children views. This allows making unique vocalizations or define a particular reading order for a part of the page.
• SwiftUI
  • Use view modifier accessibilityElement(children: .combine) to merge the child accessibility element’s properties into the new accessibilityElement.

State

• In the case of expandable dropdowns, state of the dropdown must be announced (i.e. expanded/collapsed). Add logic and announcements to the programmatic name for the state.

• UIKit
  • If applicable, dropdown items should be announced whether they are selected/unselected, in the cases of radio buttons or checkboxes.
  • For enabled dropdown items: Set isEnabled to true.
  • For disabled dropdown items: Set isEnabled to false. Announcement for disabled is “Dimmed”.
    • If necessary, you may change the accessibility trait of the dropdown item to notEnabled, but this may overwrite the current accessibility role of the dropdown item.
• SwiftUI
  • If applicable, dropdown items should be announced whether they are selected/unselected, in the cases of radio buttons or checkboxes.
  • For selected dropdown items, use accessibilityAddTraits(.isSelected).
  • For disabled dropdown items, use view modifier disabled().

Focus

• Use the device’s default focus functionality.
• Consider how focus should be managed between child elements and their parent views.
• External keyboard tab order often follows the screen reader focus, but sometimes this functionality requires additional development to manage focus.
• Initial focus on a screen should land in a logical place, such as back button, screen title, first text field, or first heading.

• When a menu, picker, or modal is closed, the focus should return to the triggering element.

• UIKit
  • If VoiceOver is not reaching a particular element, set the element’s isAccessibilityElement to true
    • Note: You may need to adjust the programmatic name, role, state, and/or value after doing this, as this action may overwrite previously configured accessibility.
  • Use accessibilityViewIsModal to contain the screen reader focus inside the modal.
  • To move screen reader focus to newly revealed content, use UIAccessibility.post(notification:argument:) that takes in .screenChanged and the newly revealed content as the parameter arguments.
  • To NOT move focus, but dynamically announce new content: use UIAccessibility.post(notification:argument:) that takes in .announcement and the announcement text as the parameter arguments.
  • UIAccessibilityContainer protocol: Have a table of elements that defines the reading order of the elements.
• SwiftUI
  • For general focus management that impacts both screen readers and non-screen readers, use the property wrapper @FocusState to assign an identity of a focus state.
    • Use the property wrapper @FocusState in conjunction with the view modifier focused(_:) to assign focus on a view with @FocusState as the source of truth.
    • Use the property wrapper @FocusStatein conjunction with the view modifier focused(_:equals:) to assign focus on a view, when the view is equal to a specific value.
  • If necessary, use property wrapper @AccessibilityFocusState to assign identifiers to specific views to manually shift focus from one view to another as the user interacts with the screen with VoiceOver on.

Announcement examples

• “Button label, chosen option label, button, collapsed” (Button that opens dropdown with selected option from dropdown and state)
• “Selected, chosen option label, button” (Selected option in dropdown list)
• “Label, button” (Other options in list that populate dropdown)
• “Dismiss context menu, button” (Optional Hidden button that closes dropdown)

Android

Developer notes

• A dropdown or spinner is a button that opens a list of options. When an option is chosen, it displays in the field (replaces the current option or placeholder)
• The screen reader focus moves directly to first option in dropdown/spinner upon double tapping the dropdown button and is confined in the list.
• Sometimes, a hidden “dismiss context menu” button after the last item is available to close it.
• Focus should go back to the triggering dropdown/spinner button, displaying the new option
• There must be a visible label for the dropdown field that is not a placeholder and it describes the purpose of the dropdown.
• The screen reader focus also remains confined in the dropdown list
• The state of expanded or collapsed should be announced

Name

• Name describes the purpose of the control, with additional label description if needed.

• Android Views
  • android:text XML attribute
  • Use contentDescription, depending on type of view and for elements (icons) without a visible label
  • contentDescription overrides android:text
  • Use labelFor attribute to associate the visible label with the control
• Jetpack Compose
  • Compose uses semantics properties to pass information to accessibility services
  • The built-in ExposedDropdownMenuBox, ExposedDropdownMenu and DropdownMenuItem components will fill the semantics properties with information inferred from the composable by default
  • Optional: use contentDescription for a more descriptive name to override the default text label of the DropdownMenuItem composable
  • Example specification of contentDescription in compose: modifier = Modifier.semantics { contentDescription = "" }

Role

• Required: Screen reader user is confined inside a dropdown when it opens
• When not using native app controls (custom controls), roles will need to be manually coded.
• Android Views
  • Spinner Class
  • “pop up window” or “dropdown list” can be the role
• Jetpack Compose
  • ExposedDropdownMenuBox, ExposedDropdownMenu, DropdownMenuItem

Groupings

• Visible label, if any, is grouped with the dropdown item in a single swipe as an option for a programmatic name for the spinner

• Android Views
  • ViewGroup
  • Set the container object’s android:screenReaderFocusable attribute to true, and each inner object’s android:focusable attribute to false. In doing so, accessibility services can present the inner elements’ contentDescription or names, one after the other, in a single announcement.
• Jetpack Compose
  • When use built-in Composable DropdownMenuItem, ExposedDropdownMenu in ExposedDropdownMenuBox, then it has the default grouping with the elements inside.
  • Use Modifier.semantics(mergeDescendants = true) {} when work on the customized dropdown items
  • FocusRequester.createRefs() helps to request focus to inner elements with in the group

State

• Expandable dropdowns
  • State must be announced - expands/collapses, opens/closes. Add logic and announcement to the programmatic name for the state
  • If “opens” or “closes” is not included in the name, the expanded/collapsed state must be announced
• Android Views
  • Active: android:enabled=true
  • Disabled: android:enabled=false. Announcement: disabled
• Jetpack Compose
  • Active: default state is active and enabled. Use DropdownMenuItem(enabled = true) to specify explicitly
  • Disabled: DropdownMenuItem(enabled = false) announces as disabled
  • Alternatively can use modifier = Modifier.semantics { disabled() } to announce as disabled
  • Use modifier = Modifier.semantics { stateDescription = "" } to have a customized state announcement

Focus

• Only manage focus when needed. Primarily, let the device manage default focus
• Consider how focus should be managed between child elements and their parent views
• External keyboard tab order often follows the screen reader focus, but sometimes needs focus management
• Moving focus into the dropdown tells the screen reader user there is a dropdown available

• When a dropdown is closed, the focus should return to the triggering element.

• Android Views
  • importantForAccessibility makes the element visible to the Accessibility API
  • android:focusable
  • android=clickable
  • Implement an onClick( ) event handler for keyboard, as well as onTouch( )
  • nextFocusDown
  • nextFocusUp
  • nextFocusRight
  • nextFocusLeft
  • accessibilityTraversalBefore (or after)
  • To move screen reader focus to newly revealed content: Type_View_Focused
  • To NOT move focus, but dynamically announce new content: accessibilityLiveRegion(set to polite or assertive)
  • To hide controls: importantForAccessibility=false
  • For a ViewGroup, set screenReaderFocusable=true and each inner object’s attribute to keyboard focus (focusable=false)
• Jetpack Compose
  • Modifier.focusTarget() makes the component focusable
  • Modifier.focusOrder() needs to be used in combination with FocusRequesters to define focus order
  • Modifier.onFocusEvent(), Modifier.onFocusChanged() can be used to observe the changes to focus state
  • FocusRequester allows to request focus to individual elements with in a group of merged descendant views
  • Example: To customize the focus events
    • step 1: define the focus requester prior. val (first, second) = FocusRequester.createRefs()
    • step 2: update the modifier to set the order. modifier = Modifier.focusOrder(first) { this.down = second }
    • focus order accepts following values: up, down, left, right, previous, next, start, end
    • step 3: use second.requestFocus() to gain focus

Code Example

• Jetpack Compose

val items = listOf("Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3")
var expanded by remember { mutableStateOf(false) }
var selectedItemText by remember { mutableStateOf(items[0]) }
ExposedDropdownMenuBox(
    expanded = expanded,
    onExpandedChange = { expanded = !expanded },
) {
    TextField(
        // The `menuAnchor` modifier must be passed to the text field for correctness.
        modifier = Modifier.menuAnchor(),
        readOnly = true,
        value = selectedItemText,
        onValueChange = {},
        label = { Text("Label") },
        trailingIcon = { ExposedDropdownMenuDefaults.TrailingIcon(expanded = expanded) },
        colors = ExposedDropdownMenuDefaults.textFieldColors(),
    )
    ExposedDropdownMenu(
        expanded = expanded,
        onDismissRequest = { expanded = false },
    ) {
        items.forEach { selectionOption ->
            DropdownMenuItem(
                text = { Text(selectionOption) },
                onClick = {
                    selectedItemText = selectionOption
                    expanded = false
                },
                contentPadding = ExposedDropdownMenuDefaults.ItemContentPadding
            )
        }
    }
}

Announcement examples (vary with devices and OS)

• “Label, button, selected option label, in list, collapsed, double tap to activate” (Opens drop down menu)
• “Selected, selected option label, index, double tap to activate” (Selected list item)
• “Other option label, double tap to activate” (Other list item)