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Integrating third-party libraries while ensuring WCAG compliance in iOS apps

👀 Views: 30 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-09-06
iOS accessibility WCAG third-party SwiftUI swift

I'm prototyping a solution and After trying multiple solutions online, I still can't figure this out. I tried several approaches but none seem to work. Working on a project that aims to enhance accessibility features in our iOS app, I'm tasked with integrating a third-party library for form handling. The library in question provides great functionality but lacks explicit support for accessibility attributes which complicates compliance with WCAG standards. I’ve already started by wrapping the library's components in custom UIViews to add the necessary accessibility traits, labels, and hints. For instance, I’ve tried implementing the following on a custom button: ```swift class AccessibleButton: UIButton { override func accessibilityElementCount() -> Int { return 1 } override func accessibilityElement(at index: Int) -> Any? { return self } override var accessibilityLabel: String? { get { return "Submit Form" } set { } } } ``` Yet, despite these modifications, screen readers do not reliably announce changes when users interact with the form elements from the library. To dig deeper, I monitored the accessibility notifications, and it appears that my changes aren't triggering any updates when the state changes. I’ve also experimented with using the `UIAccessibility.post(notification:argument:)` method to announce state changes via notifications. Here's what a typical implementation looks like: ```swift @objc func formFieldDidChange() { UIAccessibility.post(notification: .announcement, argument: "Form field updated") } ``` Even after applying this, users still mention that the screen reader doesn't reflect the state updates accurately. Looking for guidance on best practices for ensuring accessibility compliance while using third-party libraries, specifically focusing on any tips for triggering accessibility updates effectively. Are there additional strategies or patterns I might be overlooking, especially concerning custom UI elements? Any insights would be greatly appreciated. I'm working on a service that needs to handle this. What am I doing wrong? How would you solve this? I'm developing on Ubuntu 20.04 with Swift. Has anyone else encountered this?