Video examples

iOS Voiceover

Android Talkback

iOS

Developer notes

• A stepper is a two-segment control used to increase or decrease an incremental value
• When new value changes, it gets announced dynamically without moving focus from the increment/decrement button
• Announcing the label when appropriate with the value gives the screen reader users and users with memory challenges context

Name

• 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 recognization.
• UIKit
  • You can programmatically set the visible label with setTitle().
    • The stepper’s title will overwrite the segment’s accessibilityLabel.
  • 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
  • By default, the programmatic name is the visible text label of the segment
  • If necessary, use view modifier accessibilityLabel(_:).
  • If a segment has icon(s), hide the icon(s) from VoiceOver by using view modifier accessibilityHidden(true).

Role

• The presence of the stepper buttons implies an interactive stepper component.

• The stepper buttons themselves should be announced as “Button”.

• UIKit
  • Use UIStepper
• SwiftUI
  • Use native Stepper view

Groupings

• N/A

• UIKit
  • Follow native grouping and order
• SwiftUI
  • Follow native grouping and order

State

• The stepper button’s state should be announced as “Increment” or “Decrement”.

• The new value should be announced when the user activates one of the buttons.

• UIKit
  • For disabled stepper: Set isEnabled to false. Announcement for disabled is “Dimmed”.
    • If necessary, you may change the accessibility trait of the menu item to notEnabled, but this may overwrite the current accessibility role of the segmented control.
• SwiftUI
  • For disabled, use view modifier disabled().

Focus

• Use the device’s default focus functionality.

• External keyboard tab order often follows the screen reader focus, but sometimes this functionality requires additional development to manage focus.

• 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.
  • 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.

Announcements

• Increment
  • “Label with current value, Increment, Button”
  • if button is activated new value will dynamically announce
• Decrement
  • “Label with current value, Decrement, Button”
  • if button is activated new value will dynamically announce

Android

There is no native stepper element for Android. The notes below are suggestions and accessibility guidance.

Developer notes

• A stepper is a two-segment control used to increase or decrease an incremental value
• When new value changes, it gets announced dynamically without moving focus from the increment/decrement button
• Announcing the label when appropriate with the value gives the screen reader users and users with memory challenges context

Name

• Name includes the purpose and describes the item changing, matching any visible label and references the number shown between stepper (if visible).

• android:text XML attribute
• Optional: use contentDescription for a more descriptive name, depending on type of view and for elements without a visible label.
• contentDescription overrides android:text
• Use labelFor attribute to connect the visible label to the control

Role

• Extend the most relevant View subclass as is relevant to this control
• Button or ImageButton

State

• Active: android:enabled=true
• Disabled: android:enabled=false
• Announcement: disabled

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.
• android:focusable=true
• android=clickable=true
• Implement an onClick( ) event handler for keyboard, not 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 announce new content: accessibilityLiveRegion
• To hide controls: Important_For _Accessibility_NO

Announcements

• Increment or Increase
  • “Label with value, Increment or Increase, Double tap to activate”
  • if button is activated new value will dynamically announce
• Decrement or Decrease
  • “Label with value, Decrement or Decrease, Double tap to activate”
  • if button is activated new value will dynamically announce