Hi Community, I'm excited to share R Helper, a speech practice app I built with accessibility as the core focus from day one. App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/speak-r-clearly/id6751442522 WHY I BUILT THIS I personally struggled with R sound pronunciation growing up. It affected my confidence in school and job interviews. That experience taught me how important accessible practice tools are. R Helper helps children and adults practice R sounds with full accessibility support. ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES IMPLEMENTED VoiceOver - complete navigation and feedback Voice Control - hands-free operation Dynamic Type - scales to large accessibility sizes Reduce Motion - respects user preference Dark Mode - user controllable High Contrast compatibility Differentiate Without Color THE CHALLENGE Most speech practice apps ignore accessibility. I wanted to change that and prove that specialized educational apps can be fully accessible. KEY FEATURES Works 100% offline, no internet needed Zero data collection, privacy first Generous free tier with all accessibility features included 10 story missions with gamification 7 languages supported including RTL for Arabic LESSONS LEARNED Accessibility is not hard when you prioritize it from the start. VoiceOver labels and hints make a huge difference. Testing with accessibility features enabled is essential. Standard SwiftUI components handle most accessibility automatically. Reducing motion significantly helps users with vestibular issues. TECHNICAL DETAILS Built with SwiftUI, targets iOS 17 and up. Universal app for iPhone and iPad. Fully offline using CoreData and local storage. No third party analytics, privacy focused. QUESTIONS FOR THE COMMUNITY What accessibility features do you find users request most? How do you test accessibility features efficiently? WHATS NEXT I'm currently working on expanding the word library, adding more story content, improving haptic feedback Thanks for reading. Nour

Feedback number: FB20451665 When building with Xcode 26, Voice Over is reporting an extra tab when swiping through tabs. Please see the sample project below: /* This is a Sample project to show that I believe there is a Voice Over bug in iOS 26. When swiping through tabs with Voice Over active, there always appears to be an extra tab. Here I have 5 tabs, when on tab one VO reads out tab 1 of 6, then tab 2 of 6, all the way to the last tab, when voice over reads out tab 5 of 6. Never tab 6 of 6. Is there a possibility that voice over is picking up the underlying `more` tab and reading that out? This has also been reportedly found in the Files app here: https://www.applevis.com/comment/195441#comment-195441 */ struct ContentView: View { var body: some View { TabView { /// Activating this has Voice over telling us there are 6 Tabs. Tab(RootTab.home.title, systemImage: "circle.fill") { Text("This is the \(RootTab.home.title.capitalized) screen") } .accessibilityLabel("\(RootTab.home.title.capitalized) tab") .accessibilityHint("Double tap to open the \(RootTab.home.title.capitalized) tab") Tab(RootTab.diary.title, systemImage: "circle.fill") { Text("This is the \(RootTab.diary.title.capitalized) screen") } .accessibilityLabel("\(RootTab.diary.title.capitalized) tab") .accessibilityHint("Double tap to open the \(RootTab.diary.title.capitalized) tab") Tab(RootTab.meals.title, systemImage: "circle.fill") { Text("This is the \(RootTab.meals.title.capitalized) screen") } .accessibilityLabel("\(RootTab.meals.title.capitalized) tab") .accessibilityHint("Double tap to open the \(RootTab.meals.title.capitalized) tab") Tab(RootTab.knowledge.title, systemImage: "circle.fill") { Text("This is the \(RootTab.knowledge.title.capitalized) screen") } .accessibilityLabel("\(RootTab.knowledge.title.capitalized) tab") .accessibilityHint("Double tap to open the \(RootTab.knowledge.title.capitalized) tab") Tab(RootTab.profile.title, systemImage: "circle.fill") { Text("This is the \(RootTab.profile.title.capitalized) screen") } .accessibilityLabel("\(RootTab.profile.title.capitalized) tab") .accessibilityHint("Double tap to open the \(RootTab.profile.title.capitalized) tab") /// Activating this also has Voice over telling us there are 6 Tabs. // ForEach(RootTab.allCases, id: \.self) { tab in // // Text("This is the \(tab.title.capitalized) screen") // .tabItem { // Label(tab.title.capitalized, systemImage: "circle.fill") // } // .accessibilityLabel("\(tab.title.capitalized) tab") // .accessibilityHint("Double tap to open the \(tab.title.capitalized) tab") // } } } enum RootTab: CaseIterable { case home case diary case meals case knowledge case profile var title: String { switch self { case .home: "home" case .diary: "diary" case .meals: "meals" case .knowledge: "knowledge" case .profile: "profile" } } } } I'm curious if anyone else can see this issue, or if anyone knows of a workaround for it.

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!

I want to understand which component types are intended to have an associated hint text, haptic feedback, or earcon associated with it for VoiceOver screen reader users. Is there a list somewhere or a HIG guideline for which transition types should have a sound? Some transitions in Apple apps generally include different beep sounds, such as opening a new screen screen dimming when a VoiceOver user swipes from the header / navbar to the body a scraping sound when swiping up or down a page. the beginning or end of the body section in Calculator when swiping from one row to the next. opening a pop up menu I would also appreciate any direction on what code strings are associated with these sounds and how custom components can capture these sounds or haptics or hints where it is expected? On the other hand, I don't want to get that info and then dictate that every component needs a specific beep type since these sounds appear to be used for specific purposes.

I’m experiencing an issue where Siri incorrectly announces currency values in notifications. Instead of reading the local currency correctly, it always reads amounts as US dollars. Issue details: My iPhone is set to Region: Chile and Language: Spanish (Chile). In Chile, the currency symbol $ represents Chilean Pesos (CLP), not US dollars. A notification with the text: let content = UNMutableNotificationContent() content.body = "¡Has recibido un pago por $5.000!" is read aloud by Siri as: ”¡Has recibido un pago por 5.000 dólares!” (English: “You have received a payment of five thousand dollars!”) instead of the correct: ”¡Has recibido un pago por 5.000 pesos!” (English: “You have received a payment of five thousand pesos!”) Another developer already reported the same issue back in 2023, and it remains unresolved: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/723177 This incorrect behavior is not limited to iOS notifications; it also occurs in other Apple services: watchOS, iPadOS, and macOS (Siri misreads currency values in various system interactions). Siri’s currency conversion feature misinterprets $ as USD even when the device is set to a region where $ represents a different currency. Announce Notifications on AirPods also exhibits this issue, making it confusing when Siri announces transaction amounts incorrectly. Apple Intelligence interactions are also affected—for example, asking Siri to “read my latest emails” when one of them contains a monetary value results in Siri misreading the currency. I have submitted a bug report via Feedback Assistant, and the Feedback ID is FB16561348. This issue significantly impacts accessibility and localization for users in regions where the currency symbol $ is not associated with US dollars. Has anyone found a workaround, or is there any update from Apple on this?

Yesterday I installed iOS 26 on my iPhone as a beta tester. At first there was no problem, but during the afternoon I noticed that neither FaceTime nor IMessage worked... I tried to go through the settings as described by Apple Support, but my phone number would not activate. Sometimes I was even asked to activate iCloud. I always get a REG-RESP message. Does anyone have any ideas what the problem could be?

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!

I'm facing a bizarre issue with the Apple's Accessibility APIs. I am registering an AXObserver that listens for, among other things, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification. For many new users, the kAXSelectTextChangedNotification is not triggered, even though they have enabled Accessibility permission for the app. Other notifications are getting through (kAXWindowMovedNotification, kAXWindowResizedNotification, kAXValueChangedNotification etc - full list here), just not the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification! We've found that we can reproduce the error by removing accessibility permission for the app and rebooting our computers. After restarting and reenabling accessibility permissions, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification was not received, even though other notifications were fine. Strangely, the issue can be resolved by launching Apple's Accessibility Inspector app on an impacted computer. Once the Accessibility Inspector is loaded, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotifications start coming through as expected. This implies to me that either: We are missing some needed setup when starting the observers. Accessibility Inspector gets it right, thus ‘starting’ the system properly. Accessibility Inspector is using some Apple private APIs that we don’t have access to. Things I’ve tried: I've tried subscribing the AXSelectedTextChangedNotification to different AXUIElements, including the SystemWide element, the Application element, and children elements from the AXApplication. None of these received the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification, until Accessibility Inspector is booted up. No surprises here, as Apple's documentation confirms that you should add the notification to the root Application AXUIElement if you want to receive notifications for all its children. I had a theory that the issue might be due to my code calling AXUIElementCreateApplication multiple times, possibly creating multiple "Applications" in Apple's Accessibility implementation. If that’s the case, the notifications might be sent to the wrong application AXUIElement. However, refactoring my code to only call AXUIElementCreateApplication once didn't resolve the issue. I thought the issue may be caused by subscribing the AXSelectedTextChangedNotification on the high-level application element (at odds with Apple's documentation). I've tried traversing the child AXUIElements until we find one with the kAXSelectedTextAttribute and then subscribing to that. This did not resolve the issue. I don’t think it's the correct path to continue exploring, given that the notifications are received correctly after AccessibilityInspector is launched. There is one exception to the above: if I add the kSelectedTextChangedNotification listener to a specific text field AXUIElement, I do receive the notification on that text field. However, this is not practical; I need a solution that will work for all text fields within an app. The Accessibility Inspector appears to be doing something that causes the selected-text-changed notifications to be correctly passed up to the high-level application AXUIElement. Another thought is that I could traverse the entire Accessibility hierarchy and add listeners to every subview that has the kAXSelectedTextAttribute. However, I don’t like this long-term solution. It will be slow and incomplete: new elements get added and removed frequently. I just want the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification to be received by the high-level Application AXUIElement, which the documentation suggests it should be. I also have evidence that this can work, since notifications start coming through after Accessibility Inspector is launched. It’s just a matter of discovering how to replicate whatever Accessibility Inspector is doing. An interesting wrinkle: I implemented the 'traverse' strategy above, but was surprised by how few elements were in the hierarchy. Most apps only go down ~2-3 levels, which didn't seem right to me. Perhaps the Accessibility tree isn't fully initialized? I tried adding a 5-second delay to allow more initialization time, but it didn't change anything. Does anyone have any ideas? Here's our file.

Hello Albert! I am experiencing some strange bugs around DeviceActivityEvents (part of the DeviceActivity framework) on iOS 26 / iOS 26.1 / iOS 26.2 beta: When creating a DeviceActivityEvent we can assign a threshold and applicationTokens. The idea is, that after the user has spent said threshold on said apps, eventDidReachThreshold() is called. The property includesPastActivity is set to false. On iOS 26 however, it happens (quite reliably after updating to a new beta seed) quite often that eventDidReachThreshold() is called immediately (after a couple of seconds) instead of waiting for the threshold to be met. Is anyone else seeing similar issues on iOS 26 / iOS 26.1 / iOS 26.2 beta? Only workaround I have found is to ask users to revoke and re-grant Screen Time permissions. This only holds for about two weeks though or at most until the next iOS 26 beta update is installed, so it is not a permanent solution unfortunately. Feedback (incl. sysdiagnoses and sample project) is filed under: FB18061981 FB18927456 One of our users has filed their own feedback request as well: FB20817853 Thanks a lot for any help on this!

When using an app via external keyboard, FocusState and .focused used to work just fine until iOS17. Vertical-axis textfields were also accessible without any issues. But after iOS18 update, adding focused modifier removes elements out of focus order of external keyboard. 1 such example is -when a button using focused modifier and @FocusSate is inside a ScrollView and if this view is getting opened via NavigationLink, that button is not accessible via Bluetooth (external) keyboard. TextEditor / Vertical-axis TextFields also seem to be impacted in external-keyboard-focus-order when added inside ScrollView. Is this a known iOS18 issue with ScrollView / any tip to get this fixed ? Sample code that can reproduce this issue: struct ContentView: View { @State private var showBottomSheet: Bool = false @State private var goToNextView: Bool = false @FocusState private var focused: Bool @AccessibilityFocusState private var voFocused: Bool var body: some View { NavigationView { VStack { Text("Hello, world!") // This button works fine in Bluetooth keyboard in all versions Button("Trigger a bottomsheet") { showBottomSheet = true } .focused($focused) .accessibilityFocused($voFocused) Button("Goto another view") { goToNextView = true } NavigationLink( destination: View2(), isActive: $goToNextView ) { EmptyView() } .accessibility(hidden: true) } .sheet(isPresented: $showBottomSheet, onDismiss: { focused = true voFocused = true }, content: { VStack() { Text("Hello World ! I'm in a bottomsheet") Button("Close me") { showBottomSheet = false } } }) .padding() } } } #Preview { ContentView() } struct View2: View { @FocusState private var focused: Bool @AccessibilityFocusState private var voFocused: Bool @State private var showBottomSheet: Bool = false var body: some View { ScrollView { VStack { Text("check") // In iOS18, this button doesn't get focused in Bluetooth / external keyboard // This issue occurs when these 3 combine in iOS 18 - a button using FocusState inside a view that has a ScrollView & it is opened via NavigationLink Button("Trigger a bottomsheet") { showBottomSheet = true } .focused($focused) .accessibilityFocused($voFocused) Button("Test button") { } } .sheet(isPresented: $showBottomSheet, onDismiss: { focused = true voFocused = true }, content: { VStack() { Text("Hello World ! I'm in a bottomsheet") Button("Close me") { showBottomSheet = false } } }) .padding() } } }

ar quicklook suddenly is grayed out on iphone 15 pro, I bought the phone new recently ot was working great, 2 days ago updated to ios 18.1.4, ar mode kept opening but i started getting a move iphone over surface message and the object wouldn’t detect surfaces correctly, updated to ios 18.5, now when i open quicklook modesl ar is completely greyed out, can someone help me fix or detect the issue thank you

I'm currently testing the announce notifications feature and I can't seem to find out how to make Siri read aloud the current currency instead of dollars. My locale is es-CL (Chile). It uses the currency symbol $ and reads as Pesos locally or Chilean Pesos where the number 5000.1 is represented as 5.000,1 This is the notification content         let content = UNMutableNotificationContent()         content.body = "¡Has recibido un pago por $5.000!" Siri reads it aloud as "¡Has recibido un pago por 5.000 Dolares!" which translates to "You have received a payment for 5,000 Dollars", instead of the expected "¡Has recibido un pago por 5.000 Pesos!" -> "You have received a payment for 5,000 Pesos" I've tried changing the development region of the app, interpolating the string with NumberFormatter.localizedString(from: 5000, number: .currency), and with others styles( .currencyAccounting, .currencyISOCode and .currencyPlural) without good results. The last one seems to work buts it's not ideal since it outputs "5.000 pesos chilenos" which gets read as "5 pesos chilenos" which is not the correct amount (bug), it's as is you're not on Chile and I personally prefer it to be a symbol instead of words. I'm testing with my device which is setup with the region "Chile" Could someone help me find a solution?

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.

CallKit and WebRTC are used to realize the call functionality. You can select video, voice, or text calling as your calling method. When making a text call, the voice input is grayed out and cannot be used, is there a solution?

In some places of our app we make use of NSAccessibilityElement subclasses to vend some extra items to accessibility clients. We need to know which item has the VoiceOver focus so we can keep track of it. setAccessibilityFocused: does not get called when accessibility clients focus NSAccessibilityElements. This method is only called when accessibility clients focus view-based accessibility elements (i.e. when a NSView subclass gets focused). At the same time we need to programmatically move VoiceOver focus to those items when something happens. Those accessibility elements inherit from NSObject so we can't make them first responder. Is this the expected behavior? What are our options in terms of reacting to VoiceOver cursor moving around? What are our options in terms of programmatically moving the VoiceOver cursor to a different element? Here's a sample project that demonstrates the first part of the issue: https://github.com/vendruscolo/apple-rdars/tree/master/DTS12368714%20-%20NSAccessibilityElement%20focus%20tracking If you run the app, a window will show up. It contains a button and a red square. If you enable VoiceOver you'll be able to move the cursor over the red square, and a message will be logged. You'll also notice there's an extra element after the red square. That element is available to VoiceOver, however when it gets focuses, no message gets logged.

In our application we are using UIAlertViewController. When accessibility full keyboard access is enabled, and we are trying to dismiss that AlertViewController with Esc key from external keyboard that is not working. We are presenting AlertViewController as a popover. We need dismiss the AlertViewController with Esc key press from external keyboard.

Hello everyone, I’d like to report an issue I’ve encountered when using a Bluetooth mouse together with AssistiveTouch on iPhone running iOS 16.5. This has also been reported via Feedback Assistant with Feedback ID: FB17806167 Description: When using a Bluetooth mouse together with AssistiveTouch on iPhone (iOS), the pointer behaves incorrectly in landscape orientation. Specifically: The pointer cannot move past the center of the screen Horizontal and vertical (X/Y) movements appear to be swapped or misaligned Natural movement of the pointer is not possible It seems as if the internal coordinate mapping remains locked in portrait orientation, even when the device is physically rotated to landscape. This issue occurs system-wide, regardless of the current app. It is observable in Settings, on the Home screen, and in third-party apps. Steps to Reproduce: Enable AssistiveTouch Connect a Bluetooth mouse to the iPhone Rotate the device to landscape orientation Try moving the mouse pointer across the screen → Notice that: Pointer cannot move past the center Horizontal/vertical input is interpreted incorrectly (as if still in portrait) Expected Behavior: The mouse pointer should move across the entire screen correctly, regardless of device orientation. Actual Behavior: In landscape orientation, the pointer is either restricted to part of the screen or misaligned. It behaves as if the device is still in portrait. Horizontal mouse movement causes vertical pointer movement, and vice versa User experience feels broken and unintuitive Feature Suggestion: Please improve the synchronization between physical device orientation and AssistiveTouch pointer mapping on iOS. I also suggest exposing AssistiveTouch orientation control via a public API, so developers can help maintain consistent pointer behavior. Thanks in advance for any insights or suggestions. Best regards, Jannis

Hello community, We're designing an app that can optionally be controlled by a stylus with a mesh tip. In this case, the mesh tip we're using is 5 mm in diameter. It seems that mesh tip contact detection is unstable in this size, although it works better with a larger diameter. Is it possible to access a setting in iOS that lets you define the minimum contact area needed to detect a contact on the screen? This would enable us to use this 5 mm stylus. Best regards, Edwin

I'm working on a ble connected device that use ancs and system clock to receive alarm notification events for earing impaired people. It used to work until iPhone 13 with latest iOS 18.x. Starting with iPhone 14 onward (iOS 18.x), system clock alarm notification is not sent anymore. Is There any reason for this to happening?. Is anyone aware of this behaviour? Any suggestion would be really appreciated. Cheers

} // Start listening to the microphone public void StartListening() { if (!isListening) { #if UNITY_IOS || UNITY_TVOS microphoneInput = Microphone.Start(null, true, 10, 44100); #else try { microphoneInput = Microphone.Start(null, true, 10, 16000); // Use 16,000 Hz instead of 44,100 if (microphoneInput == null) { microphoneInput = Microphone.Start(null, true, 10, AudioSettings.outputSampleRate); } #endif isListening = true; Debug.Log(Microphone.devices.Length + " Started listening..."); debugText.text = Microphone.devices.Length + "- Started listening..."; } catch (System.Exception e) { Debug.LogError($"Starting microphone failed: {e.Message}"); debugText.text = $"Starting microphone failed: {e.Message}"; } } } void Update() { if (isListening && microphoneInput != null) { // Analyze the audio for voice activity float volume = GetAverageVolume(); if (volume > detectionThreshold) { Debug.Log("User is speaking!"); lastVoiceTime = Time.time; SoundDetected = true; if (Time.time - lastVoiceTime > silenceDuration) { Debug.Log("User is silent."); debugText.text = volume.ToString() + " - User is silent."; } slider.value = volume; } } } private float GetAverageVolume() { float[] samples = new float[128]; microphoneInput.GetData(samples, Microphone.GetPosition(null)); float sum = 0f; foreach (float sample in samples) { sum += Mathf.Abs(sample); } return sum / samples.Length; } Problem: When I build and run the app from Xcode, the microphone works fine, and I receive input. However, when running the app normally (outside of Xcode), I can’t seem to access the microphone. The debug logs indicate no microphone is detected. Question: Is there any additional configuration I need to do for the microphone to work in a normal (non-Xcode) run on Vision Pro? Or any common issues that could be causing the microphone access to fail in this scenario? Thanks in advance for any insights! Best, Siddharth