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[iOS app] acctivate button inside tile

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From: Bart Simons
Date: Nov 20, 2023 6:02AM

Hello,

We test the accessibility of an iOS app. There are tiles with a relatively long information. You click the tile to perform an action. But the tile also contains a button that triggers a different action such as an "Info" icon that provides more information or an asterisk to mark as favorite.

The developers have grouped the information so that VoiceOver reads the whole tile content in one go and no need for multiple swipe actions to read the tile's content. This is helpful as not to loose context.

But the developers say that they don't know to make the button inside the tile accessible. Ideally it can be reached with the next swipe but developers say they cannot focus a button that is part of a tile that in itself is clickable.

Is there really no way to do that?

They propose to add a custom action to the tile. Swiping down with VoiceOver would then provide access to "more info" or "mark as favorite".

I have a few remarks on this:
VoiceOver announces the existence of custom actions only after reading the relatively long information in the tile. It is very likely that a VoiceOVer user will not listen until the end and thus not discover the message that custom actions are available.

I think that custom actions are meant as shortcuts to provide quick access to actions that also can be performed in another way. Is it acceptable that a function is only available through a custom action?

Do you know of a better soulution to, on the one hand group information in a clickable tile but on the other hand also provide access to a button inside the tile?

Thanks in advance

Bart Simons
AnySurfer - Voor een toegankelijker internet
+32 2210 6149
https://www.anysurfer.be/