I'm working on improving accessibility in a native macOS app and going through WCAG, but with so many success criteria it's hard to know where to focus for native Apple platform apps. 1. Does Apple recommend a specific subset or checklist of WCAG requirements for macOS and iOS? 2. If not, which criteria are generally considered essential, and how do developers typically validate them using Apple's accessibility tools and assistive technologies? I'm looking for a prioritized list of criteria that actually apply to native apps, rather than trying to implement every WCAG criterion individually.

When VoiceOver is enabled, it sometimes reads auto-generated image descriptions such as 'a blue and white logo on a white background' or 'warning icon, image error' instead of the custom accessibilityLabel we've set on the icons. How can we prevent VoiceOver from reading these image-specific descriptions and ensure it only reads our custom labels? Just like UIAccessibility.isVoiceOverRunning lets us check if VoiceOver is active, is there an equivalent API to detect whether Voice Control is currently enabled?

The existing API is roughly imported into Swift and pretty thorny. Some of this can be addressed with a wrapper library but some of it is much more difficult, like addressing AXObserver not having a finished event or callback to signify when it would be safe to do cleanup in a concurrent environment. A Swift overlay could be a great opportunity to make third part assistive tech more accessible.

Is it possible to use SSML to provide a VO string in multiple languages. For instance, a label in English, but you want it to speak a phrase within that sentence in Spanish for a proper noun.

When I try to inspect elements in the device hub, only the full window (group) is selectable. Am I doing it wrong? (FB22976268)

For example, we have a "card view" that navigates to a comprehensive detail screen... But there's an ellipsis on the card as well, that shows a menu of quick actions. We need both to be tappable. (SwiftUI project)

I have enabled "Voice Over" in the Device -> Accessibility Menu of the Device Hub, but I hear no Output. I was expecting Voice Over to be active when this option is selected. Running Xc 27 on MacOS 26.5. Do I maybe need to be on MacOS 27?

for example: Our designers want our "Disclosures/Legal" info icon, to be 4px from the text. So we end up needing to "hack" around the view, to make the info tap target exist "over" the text. without any hacks, if we use a 20x20 icon + 4 padding, the tap target is only 28px wide. the "hack" in question, usually involves adding paddings + inverted (negative) padding, to increase the tap target, without affecting layout

Can developers programmatically turn on Reduce (Liquid Glass) Transparency for their app? Or just for a view? Or will iOS 27 permit setting Reduce Transparency on an app-by-app basis?

Hello, In this press release from last month: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/05/apple-unveils-new-accessibility-features-and-updates-with-apple-intelligence/ It indicates the following: "For sign language interpretation app developers, a new API supports users in adding a human interpreter to an ongoing FaceTime video call." I have looked over the WWDC26 sessions but have not been able to find any information on this new API. Can you point me in the right direction? Thank you!

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!

I reported it to the beta team already but I was wondering if anybody else is not able to get there device to restart just by one tap using the AssistiveTouch menu?

I have enabled "Voice Over" in the Device -> Accessibility Menu of the Device Hub, but I hear no Output. I was expecting Voice Over to be active when this option is selected. Running Xc 27 on MacOS 26.5. Do I need to be on MacOS 27?

On tvOS, third-party apps cannot read number key presses from a connected keyboard or remote (except inside a text field). There is also no HDMI-CEC API. Because of this, a live-TV / IPTV app cannot let the user simply type a channel number to change channels. This excludes a large group of users, especially older people. They have used numbered channels for their whole lives — they remember that a given number is a specific channel and just want to press that number to get there. It is the simplest and most familiar way for them to use a TV. Making them navigate an on-screen grid with the Siri Remote instead is much harder and unfamiliar for them. Please give apps a way to support numeric channel entry on tvOS — for example by letting apps receive number key presses (0–9) from a connected Bluetooth keyboard/keypad without forcing a text field, or by exposing the numeric keys from the TV's own remote via HDMI-CEC. Other TV platforms already pass number keys from the remote to apps, so this works for them today. tvOS does not, which leaves these users without a basic, expected way to use their TV.

I’m implementing an Apple AssistiveTouch eye tracker accessory for iPad over USB-C using iAP2 plus native HID Gaze Point reports. Current state: iAP2 authentication succeeds identification succeeds StartNativeHID is received AssistiveTouchInformation(IsEnabled=true) is received iPadOS enumerates the HID interface and consumes the interrupt IN reports The remaining issue is that the gaze-point behavior is not interpreted as direct screen coordinates. Repeated fixed gaze inputs produce deterministic but incorrect cursor motion, often appearing like orbiting or projection around a locus rather than stable placement. I have tested: the 119-byte Apple example HID descriptor from the Accessory Interface Specification two report-1 layouts: timestamp + x + y status + timestamp + x + y normalized and physical coordinate scaling verified on the wire that the intended report bytes are sent and consumed iPad console logs show internal model point (HID r) values and multiple derived Pointer positions for a single commanded point, which suggests the device is accepted but the gaze report semantics are still not what iPadOS expects. Questions: Is the example Gaze Point HID descriptor in the Apple Accessory Interface Specification sufficient as-is for iPadOS? What exact payload layout is expected for the Gaze Point report? Is a per-sample status byte required in the gaze input report? Are additional HID feature/input reports required for correct interpretation? I can provide: the exact HID descriptor bytes sample report payloads USB analyzer traces iPad console excerpts showing the resulting model-point and pointer projections

I am a quadriplegic. That means when I ask Siri something she comes back with an answer saying this is what I found on the web. This means nothing to me because I cannot use my fingers to pick up the phone. I I get a better and more detail from Alexa or Google nest. Go ahead and Google and or and Apple AI actually intelligent

Our app supports Full Keyboard Access. We have a scroll view containing content that extends beyond the visible area. When navigating with the keyboard, focusable elements inside the scroll view are reached and the view scrolls to follow focus, but content that has no focusable elements (e.g. long blocks of static text, images, or footer content below the last control) can't be brought into view by the keyboard alone. Is there a supported way for Full Keyboard Access users to scroll a scroll view to see this off-screen, non-focusable content — e.g. a built-in scroll command, or an API to make the scroll view itself focusable/scrollable via the keyboard — without resorting to custom key handling?

Our app supports Full Keyboard Access. When an element is focused, the system-drawn FKA focus indicator (the ring/overlay) sits over the UI component. This overlay drops the content's colour contrast below the WCAG 2.1 minimums — 4.5:1 for text (1.4.3) and 3:1 for UI components and focus indicators (1.4.11) — causing the focused state to fail accessibility audits. Is there a supported way to completely remove this focus overlay on a view without breaking FKA keyboard navigation or VoiceOver?

OK hello Apple developers, and whoever else is reading, I am a quadriplegic. This means I cannot use my fingers. So therefore I cannot pick up the phone. That means I cannot pick up the phone for Face ID which is biometric, fingerprint which is biometric, I believe the eye is biometric. So is the voice. That is how I have to login to my brokerage firms multiple bank account. Anything super secure I can use my voice as a password. It's super simple. Just add and the code and write it so therefore it is as simple as saying something to the effect of "hey seri my voice is my password. A few simple lines of code written by Apple expert this should not be hard at all and should be included in an update. Just think how would you use your phone if you could not pick it up. I cannot put Apple Pay i cannot secure on my phone because I cannot lock it because I cannot pick it up. Any help would be greatly appreciated

On iOS 26 with Full Keyboard Access enabled, a UITableView(style: .grouped) with custom cells only enumerates section 0 in the Ctrl+Tab focus order (But it works with arrow keys). Cells in sections 1+ are reachable via arrow keys, and canFocusRowAt fires and returns true when arrows spatially reach them — but Tab leaves the table after the last row of section 0 and jumps to the next focus item outside the table. Same code works correctly on iOS 18.x. focusGroupIdentifier strategies (single ID on the table, same ID across view/table/every cell, unique ID per cell) have no effect. tableView.allowsFocus is true. Is this a known iOS 26? Has anyone else run into this? final class CardCell: UITableViewCell { private let cardView = UIView() override init(style: CellStyle, reuseIdentifier: String?) { super.init(style: style, reuseIdentifier: reuseIdentifier) cardView.backgroundColor = .white cardView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false contentView.addSubview(cardView) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ cardView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: contentView.topAnchor), cardView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: contentView.bottomAnchor), cardView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: contentView.leadingAnchor), cardView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: contentView.trailingAnchor), ]) } required init?(coder: NSCoder) { fatalError() } } // Table: UITableView(style: .grouped), 3 sections, register CardCell. // Reproduce on iOS 26 with FKA on → Tab from section 0 leaves the table, // skipping every cell in sections 1+.