We have a password entry field with a "show password" button. The button effectively turns the "secure text entry" textfield into a non-secure text entry field allowing the user to view what they typed in.
When VoiceOver is enabled, I am not including that button in the UI; it doesn't seem to make sense to me for the following reasons.
If you properly test with the screen curtain, the functionality is useless. You don't see anything. I've tried to explain this to my accessibility team. It's also quite ridiculous to offer to show a blind user their password, I'm sure they'd love to see it, but they just can't. This would almost seem insulting as well.
If by toggling that button, and turning a secure text entry into a non-secure text entry, now the app is literally speaking their password aloud. This seems like a security vulnerability to me. What if someone else overhears the password spoken aloud.
The accessibility team is insisting that I need to include the "show password" button when VoiceOver is enabled. This is the response I received.
"functionality should be the same for VI users as for sighted users. It may happen that a VI user wants to check what is typed into password field in order to correct mistakes".
Again, I don't agree with that because functionality should not be the same. Functionality should be changed and altered as necessary to make the user experience as accessible as possible.
And in this scenario, to me the functionality doesn't make sense at all in a VoiceOver setting.
Any thoughts on this? Am I incorrect here? Are there benefits of including a "show password" button to a user utilizing VoiceOver? What should then the functionality be? Speak the password aloud?
Thanks.
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I am working on capturing 48MP images using the iPhone 16 Pro Max with the Ultra-wide camera. I’ve updated the code to capture the maximum supported dimensions with the following snippet:
if #available(iOS 16.0, *) {
photoOutput.maxPhotoDimensions = device.activeFormat.supportedMaxPhotoDimensions.last!
photoSettings.maxPhotoDimensions = .init(width: 5712, height: 4284)
}
However, I’m still not getting the expected results. My goal is to capture 48MP images, and I want to confirm if the Ultra-wide camera supports this resolution or if I’m missing any other configuration.
Any guidance would be appreciated!
i have updated to the ipados 26 and my pointer is still the circle one and not the arrow cursor
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Updated to iOS 26 beta and now the TV remote app in the control center won’t open. I’ve tried the following:
Restart phone
Remove shortcut and re-add
Cant find any other troubleshooting methods for this issue online so I’m guessing it’s a new problem.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
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
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Education and Kids
Education
Machine Learning
Apple Intelligence
We use an embedded WKWebView for several screens in our app.
Recently, we have been testing keyboard navigation via Full Keyboard Access in our apps. On IOS 18, everything works pretty much as expected. On IOS 26, it does not.
On IOS 26, you can "tab" away from the webview and then never tab back to the webview for keyboard navigation.
Is this a known issue? Are there workarounds for this issue that anyone is aware of?
We have an iOS App built in .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI).
This is a web view App.
We wish to integrate APP Clips into this App.
But we are unable to do it, due to less available resources online on such implementation.
We do not wish to share code between .NET MAUI App and App clips.
We understand it is not possible to add APP Clips without a parent swift/Xcode app.
As an alternative solution we were thinking to Create a new APP in APP Store Connect using XCode/swift and integrate app clips to it.
This parent app when downloaded by users will only redirect users to our MAIN .NET MAUI app to app store connect.
We need to know if such apps will be approved by APPSTORE Connect?
Please guide us on this.
Also please do let us know if you have any other solution to integrate App clips to a .NET MAUI App
My team has a robust digital accessibility program and processes for WCAG conformance in our apps. Because of this, there are definitely accessibility defects that get caught and addressed in order of impact and business priority like any other bug. Obviously we want to aim for 100% accessibility for our users, but it's a continual work in progress as new enhancements or changes are released.
I'm stuck on the appropriate measurement to indicate support. If we have 50 common tasks and the most central 10 tasks are solid but some supporting (but also common) tasks have a contrast fail or accessibleLabel missing, does that make the whole app not supporting the feature? If "completing the task" is the rubric there are a whole range of interpretations for that.
In a complex app, I anticipate that a group like ours will have strong support for many of the Accessibility Nutrition Labels accessibility features across tasks and devices, but realistically never be 100% free of defects for a given Apple Accessibility feature, even among core tasks.
As I consider the next steps for Nutrition Labels, I do not see anything in the documentation that gives a sort of baseline or measurement for inclusion. We plan to test all steps to complete a task, and log defects accordingly with an assigned timeline for fixing them (as would be true for functional defects).
System settings => Accessibility => System Voice => the little (i) beside the pulldown => Voices => THIS SCREEN will allow you to download Premium Voices
Is there a way to trigger this screen programmatically. Or at least a link to get my users there without having to dig thru that swamp of screens?
When my macOS Cocoa app displays a modal alert with beginSheetModal(for:completionHandler:), VoiceOver sometimes seems to focus on an "illegal" upper level, where any attempts at navigation will give the unhelpful response "Alert, dialog", until you "drill down" with VO + shift + down or switch apps. After that, things will work as expected.
Is this a known bug? Does it happen to anybody else, or am I doing something wrong?
I have the following method to insert @mentions to a text field:
func insertMention(user: Token, at range: NSRange) -> Void {
let tokenImage: UIImage = renderMentionToken(text: "@\(user.username)")
let attachment: NSTextAttachment = NSTextAttachment()
attachment.image = tokenImage
attachment.bounds = CGRect(x: 0, y: -3, width: tokenImage.size.width, height: tokenImage.size.height)
attachment.accessibilityLabel = user.username
attachment.accessibilityHint = "Mention of \(user.username)"
let attachmentString: NSMutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: NSAttributedString(attachment: attachment))
attachmentString.addAttribute(.TokenID, value: user.id, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: 1))
attachmentString.addAttribute(.Tokenname, value: user.username, range: NSRange(location: 0, length: 1))
let mutableText: NSMutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: textView.attributedText)
mutableText.replaceCharacters(in: range, with: attachmentString)
mutableText.append(NSAttributedString(string: " "))
textView.attributedText = mutableText
textView.selectedRange = NSRange(location: range.location + 2, length: 0)
mentionRange = nil
tableView.isHidden = true
}
When I use XCode's accessibility inspector to inspect the text input, the inserted token is not read by the inspector - instead a whitespace is shown for the token. I want to set the accessibility-label to the string content of the NSTextAttachment. How?
I have an issue in my app when it is used together with the assistive access feature.
For authentication, we are using the capacitor firebase authentication plugin (https://www.npmjs.com/package/@capacitor-firebase/authentication) which enables users to login via apple (FirebaseAuthentication.signInWithApple(...)), google (FirebaseAuthentication.signInWithGoogle(...)), or email. Works just fine. However, when the assistive access feature is enabled, the login fails for apple ("The operation couldn't be completed. com.apple.AuthenticationServices.AuthorizationError error 1000) and google ("The user canceled the sign-in flow).
It seems like the popups for sign-in are blocked and therefore an error is returned immediately. The popups may be blocked by assistive access, causing the capacitor plugin to be unable to authenticate.
I have tested this on my iPhone 12 Pro using iOS 17.7
I would appreciate any suggestions to handle this issue!
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Hi,
I want to detect if there is a fullscreen window on each screen.
_AXUIElementGetWindow and kAXFullscreenAttribute methods work, but I have to be in a non-sandbox environment to use them.
Is there any other way that also works? I don't think it's enough to judge if it's fullscreen by comparing the window size to the screen size, since it doesn't work on MacBook with notch, or the menu bar is set to 'auto-hide'.
Thanks.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Accessibility
Mac App Store
Core Graphics
App Sandbox
I’ve noticed that the VoiceOver reads currency amounts correctly when they are below thousand.
Then, for higher amounts, for example 12.225,34 € VoiceOver reads ‘twelve point two two five thirty four euros’
If the amount is formatted without the thousand separator (12225,34 €) this problem doesn’t exist. (VO reads twelve thousand two hundred and twenty five euros and thirty four cents)
Why is the thousand separator a problem for VoiceOver if this formatting is coming from the currency and locale?
This issue exists in English. I changed my device language to Italian and German and in both cases the number was read correctly even with the separator.
Is there a way to make it work in English?
Hello,
I'm observing a persistent and frustrating issue with an accessibility feature called Guided Access that seems to affect many users across different devices and iOS versions.
Problem
The triple-click gesture (side or home button) to activate Guided Access intermittently stops working after the device has been in normal use for a few days (typically 2-7 days) without a restart.
I have done some debugging for Apple in FB16094026 but received no updates after 6 months. So I'm posting here in the hope that this will be solved sooner. A core accessibility feature shouldn't require daily device restarts to function reliably.
Details:
Guided Access is correctly enabled in Settings > Accessibility.
Initially, the triple-click works perfectly.
After a period of normal device use (2-7 days), the triple-click no longer triggers Guided Access in any app.
Restarting the device temporarily resolves the issue, and Guided Access triple-click works again immediately after a reboot. However, the problem recurs after continued use.
Simply toggling the Guided Access setting on/off does NOT fix it.
Additional observation: Even trying to select Guided Access manually via the Accessibility Shortcut menu (if multiple shortcuts are enabled) sometimes fails to launch the feature when in this state.
Affected:
iPhones and iPads
Observed on iOS/iPadOS 16, 17, and now 18, indicating it's a long-standing bug.
Impact:
Guided Access is a crucial accessibility feature for many users (for focus, special needs, parental controls, etc.). Its unreliable activation significantly disrupts daily workflows and reliance on this function. This issue appears to be widespread, with many reports across forums like Apple Support Communities and Reddit.
For example, this post received over 1k upvotes.
To see more examples please refer to FB16094026.
Could Apple please investigate this bug urgently? Thanks.
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General
Our company enrolled in the Apple Developer Program as an organization in July 2024. Everything was fine for several months, but in early January 2025, our developer noticed that the certificates were missing. When we logged into our developer account, we were shocked to see a page prompting us to “Enroll Today”—as if we had never joined in the first place.
Clicking the enrollment button led us to an error page stating we cannot enroll.
We immediately reached out to Apple Developer Support via email, but despite multiple attempts, we received no response. Strangely, our apps remain live on the App Store, App Store Connect functions as usual, and we continue receiving payments every month. However, we are completely blocked from developing and releasing updates.
Today, I managed to reach Apple by phone. After being transferred to a senior representative, I was told they couldn’t tell me why this was happening. They only confirmed that a request had been made and that I should “wait.” That’s it—no explanation, no timeline, nothing. While it’s somewhat reassuring that they acknowledge the issue, I’ve already seen other developers with the same problem go unanswered for months.
My suspicion? This account might be linked to an individual developer account from way back in 2015 when Apple’s registration process was far less strict. Could that be the issue? No idea—because Apple won’t say a word.
Meanwhile, both of our apps have been exposed to several bugs, and customers are waiting for updates. If there’s still no response from Apple, I have no choice but to register a new account—purely to continue supporting our users.
CASE ID: 102508598957
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!
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.
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.
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?
Topic:
Accessibility & Inclusion
SubTopic:
General