UIAccessibility is an informal protocol in UIKit that provides accessibility information about user interface elements. This information is used by VoiceOver and other assistive technologies to help users with disabilities interact with your application. All of the standard views and controls in UIKit implement UIAccessibility, so applications are accessible by default.
This tag is for any questions about making iOS apps more accessible to users via the UIAccessibility protocols.
By default, all objects that inherit from UIView adhere to this informal protocol. In fact, for many views with a low level of customization, iOS is clever enough to set the accessibility attributes automatically. For higher levels of customization, though, the following fields can be set manually (from the Apple docs):
- Label. A short, localized word or phrase that succinctly describes the control or view, but does not identify the element’s type. Examples are “Add” or “Play.”
- Traits. A combination of one or more individual traits, each of which describes a single aspect of an element’s state, behavior, or usage. For example, an element that behaves like a keyboard key and that is currently selected can be characterized by the combination of the Keyboard Key and Selected traits.
- Hint. A brief, localized phrase that describes the results of an action on an element. Examples are “Adds a title” or “Opens the shopping list.”
- Frame. The frame of the element in screen coordinates, which is given by the CGRect structure that specifies an element’s screen location and size.
- Value. The current value of an element, when the value is not represented by the label. For example, the label for a slider might be “Speed,” but its current value might be “50%.”
When a VoiceOver user taps a view (or a Switch Control user scans over it), that view's properties are read out loud. These properties also help to determine how VoiceOver and Switch Control facilitate user interaction.
For more information, See the official Apple documentation here: Accessibility Programming Guide
