Explore best practices for creating inclusive apps for users of Apple accessibility features and users from diverse backgrounds.

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Siri misreads local currency in notifications (Bug reported, still unresolved)
I’m experiencing an issue where Siri incorrectly announces currency values in notifications. Instead of reading the local currency correctly, it always reads amounts as US dollars. Issue details: My iPhone is set to Region: Chile and Language: Spanish (Chile). In Chile, the currency symbol $ represents Chilean Pesos (CLP), not US dollars. A notification with the text: let content = UNMutableNotificationContent() content.body = "¡Has recibido un pago por $5.000!" is read aloud by Siri as: ”¡Has recibido un pago por 5.000 dólares!” (English: “You have received a payment of five thousand dollars!”) instead of the correct: ”¡Has recibido un pago por 5.000 pesos!” (English: “You have received a payment of five thousand pesos!”) Another developer already reported the same issue back in 2023, and it remains unresolved: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/723177 This incorrect behavior is not limited to iOS notifications; it also occurs in other Apple services: watchOS, iPadOS, and macOS (Siri misreads currency values in various system interactions). Siri’s currency conversion feature misinterprets $ as USD even when the device is set to a region where $ represents a different currency. Announce Notifications on AirPods also exhibits this issue, making it confusing when Siri announces transaction amounts incorrectly. Apple Intelligence interactions are also affected—for example, asking Siri to “read my latest emails” when one of them contains a monetary value results in Siri misreading the currency. I have submitted a bug report via Feedback Assistant, and the Feedback ID is FB16561348. This issue significantly impacts accessibility and localization for users in regions where the currency symbol $ is not associated with US dollars. Has anyone found a workaround, or is there any update from Apple on this?
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666
Feb ’25
Guided Access Unresponsive After Period of Use
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.
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76
Apr ’25
Unexpected behaviour of hardware keyboard focus in UITests
Hello! I was faced with unexpected behavior of hardware keyboard focus in UITests. A clear description of the problem When running UITests on the iOS Simulator with both "Full Keyboard Access" and "Connect Hardware Keyboard" options enabled, there is a noticeable delay between keyboard actions for focus managing (like pressing Tab or arrow keys). The delay seems to increase with repeated input and suggests that events are being queued instead of processed immediately. I will describe why I have such an assumption later. A step-by-step set of instructions to reproduce the problem Launch the iOS Simulator. Enable both "Full Keyboard Access" and "Connect Hardware Keyboard" in the Simulator settings. Run a UITest on a target application (ideally an endless or long-running test). Once the app is launched, press the Tab key several times. Observe the delay in focus movement. Optionally, press the Tab or arrow keys rapidly, then stop the UITest. After stopping, you’ll see a burst of rapid focus changes. What results you expected We expected keyboard actions (like Tab) to be handled immediately and the UI focus to update smoothly during UITests. What results you saw There was a 4–10 (end more) second delay between pressing keys and seeing a response. All stacked keyboard events (used for managing focus) are performed all at once after stopping the UITest. The version of Xcode you are using Xcode: Version 16.3 (16E140) Simulator: iPhone 16 Pro (iOS 18.4 and 18.1) Simulator: iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) (iPadOS 17.5)
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172
Apr ’25
Bulgarian cyrillic alphabet appears to be Russian, but should look Bulgarian
Hello So if you use the Bulgarian keyboard, you get these characters: явертъуиопюасдфгхйклшщзьцжбнмч This isn’t really right for Bulgaria, because т should look like m, and д should look like g, and other characters should look like rotated or mirrored Latin characters. E.g., г should look like a backwards s. Compare the Bulgaria Wikipedia page in Bulgarian: https://bg.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D1%8A%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F with the Bulgaria Wikipedia page in Russian: https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F Notice that the letters are different. Anyhow, the ios Bulgarian font is just Russian Cyrillic, and that seems like an unintended bug rather than an intentional stylistic choice, basically.
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329
Feb ’25
The camera preview screen cannot be previewed in full screen
I downloaded the official camera sample code(https://developer.apple.com/tutorials/sample-apps/capturingphotos-camerapreview )it's a .swiftpm package and created a SwiftUI project. I copied the official sample code into this new project, build it, and ran it on an iPhone 13 for testing. I found that there were black empty areas on the top and bottom of the application interface, which means that the application interface cannot be previewed in full screen. I have tried many methods but cannot preview in full screen. How can I modify the code?
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177
Apr ’25
Please consider having Name Recognition in a shortcut automation
Request: Name Recognition → Shortcut for SOS Flashlight + Vibration Right now, iOS Name Recognition works, but all I can do is flash the tiny notification light. It would be much more useful if Name Recognition could trigger a Shortcut. That way, I could set it to flash the flashlight in an SOS pattern and vibrate, making the alert impossible to miss. I tried using Custom Alarm, but it won’t let me record my spoken name, so it doesn’t really solve the problem. If Apple allowed Name Recognition to trigger Shortcuts — or expanded “Custom” to support names/words — this would open up far more practical, real-world alerts.
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592
Sep ’25
Why is VoiceOver’s "Content Chooser" rotor empty in my macOS app?
I'm developing a macOS app using NSView and trying to make my content navigable via VoiceOver. I'm expecting the built-in rotor category "Content Chooser" (accessed via VO + U) to list my accessible elements — just like how it shows message items in the Mail app. However, in my app, this rotor appears empty, even though: My views return proper accessibilityChildren() or accessibilityContents() with valid NSAccessibilityElements Each child has correct AXRole, AXLabel, etc. The window is key and visible VoiceOver navigation works for the elements I've also tried: Using both accessibilityChildren() and accessibilityContents() in container views Setting roles like .group, .staticText, .button, etc. Avoiding hidden elements Ensuring all elements are visible and labeled Still, "Content Chooser" rotor is empty. What exact conditions must be met for an element to appear in the "Content Chooser" rotor in a macOS app? Any Apple-specific guidance, hidden requirements, or sample code would be appreciated.
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171
May ’25
kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification not received after restart, until launching Accessibility Inspector
I'm facing a bizarre issue with the Apple's Accessibility APIs. I am registering an AXObserver that listens for, among other things, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification. For many new users, the kAXSelectTextChangedNotification is not triggered, even though they have enabled Accessibility permission for the app. Other notifications are getting through (kAXWindowMovedNotification, kAXWindowResizedNotification, kAXValueChangedNotification etc - full list here), just not the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification! We've found that we can reproduce the error by removing accessibility permission for the app and rebooting our computers. After restarting and reenabling accessibility permissions, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification was not received, even though other notifications were fine. Strangely, the issue can be resolved by launching Apple's Accessibility Inspector app on an impacted computer. Once the Accessibility Inspector is loaded, the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotifications start coming through as expected. This implies to me that either: We are missing some needed setup when starting the observers. Accessibility Inspector gets it right, thus ‘starting’ the system properly. Accessibility Inspector is using some Apple private APIs that we don’t have access to. Things I’ve tried: I've tried subscribing the AXSelectedTextChangedNotification to different AXUIElements, including the SystemWide element, the Application element, and children elements from the AXApplication. None of these received the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification, until Accessibility Inspector is booted up. No surprises here, as Apple's documentation confirms that you should add the notification to the root Application AXUIElement if you want to receive notifications for all its children. I had a theory that the issue might be due to my code calling AXUIElementCreateApplication multiple times, possibly creating multiple "Applications" in Apple's Accessibility implementation. If that’s the case, the notifications might be sent to the wrong application AXUIElement. However, refactoring my code to only call AXUIElementCreateApplication once didn't resolve the issue. I thought the issue may be caused by subscribing the AXSelectedTextChangedNotification on the high-level application element (at odds with Apple's documentation). I've tried traversing the child AXUIElements until we find one with the kAXSelectedTextAttribute and then subscribing to that. This did not resolve the issue. I don’t think it's the correct path to continue exploring, given that the notifications are received correctly after AccessibilityInspector is launched. There is one exception to the above: if I add the kSelectedTextChangedNotification listener to a specific text field AXUIElement, I do receive the notification on that text field. However, this is not practical; I need a solution that will work for all text fields within an app. The Accessibility Inspector appears to be doing something that causes the selected-text-changed notifications to be correctly passed up to the high-level application AXUIElement. Another thought is that I could traverse the entire Accessibility hierarchy and add listeners to every subview that has the kAXSelectedTextAttribute. However, I don’t like this long-term solution. It will be slow and incomplete: new elements get added and removed frequently. I just want the kAXSelectedTextChangedNotification to be received by the high-level Application AXUIElement, which the documentation suggests it should be. I also have evidence that this can work, since notifications start coming through after Accessibility Inspector is launched. It’s just a matter of discovering how to replicate whatever Accessibility Inspector is doing. An interesting wrinkle: I implemented the 'traverse' strategy above, but was surprised by how few elements were in the hierarchy. Most apps only go down ~2-3 levels, which didn't seem right to me. Perhaps the Accessibility tree isn't fully initialized? I tried adding a 5-second delay to allow more initialization time, but it didn't change anything. Does anyone have any ideas? Here's our file.
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144
May ’25
Making PhotoLibrary UIImagePickerController a11y compliant
I am invoking the UIImagePickerController of type UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypePhotoLibrary from my viewController. I want shift the keyboard focus to the Cancel button which is the first interactive element on the gallery picker. When a user has full keyboard access turned on they should be able to tap tab and interact with the gallery picker modal. How do I achieve this?
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151
May ’25
Apple Vision Pro - Homonymous Hemianopia
Individuals with a stroke can end up with vision impairments: specifically Homonymous Hemianopia which basically means the individual has lost sight in (as an example) the left half of both eyes. I'm interested in understanding if it would be possible to help individuals with this vision impairment by providing an accessibility config within the Apple Vision Pro which would first determine an individuals field of view (possibly by showing a field of dots across the entire "screen" and having the individual look at the dot and click. Based on the results of this field of view, this would determine how the screen would be presented to the user moving forward. My mom (82 years old) had a stroke recently and was diagnosed with Homonymous Hemianopia. She lived on her IPhone and would love to get back the ability to text message, use Facebook, and order items from Amazon. Please advise if you believe the Apple Vision Pro would be capable of helping in this area with the suggested development, or other thoughts.
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484
Jan ’25
ar quicklook suddenly is grayed out on iphone 15 pro
ar quicklook suddenly is grayed out on iphone 15 pro, I bought the phone new recently ot was working great, 2 days ago updated to ios 18.1.4, ar mode kept opening but i started getting a move iphone over surface message and the object wouldn’t detect surfaces correctly, updated to ios 18.5, now when i open quicklook modesl ar is completely greyed out, can someone help me fix or detect the issue thank you
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173
May ’25
Autocomplete Select not working with VoiceOver in iOS 18.6.2
Hey folksI, I would like to ask for help on this topic: I think this is exactly the same problem Combobox not working with VoiceOver after… - Apple Community. VoiceOver also breaks the combobox from the official ARIA W3C website https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/combobox/examples/combobox-autocomplete-list/. When VO is turned off, I can use the up/down arrow to go through the menu items from the dropdown, but when VO is turned on, the up/down arrows cannot access the dropdown menu items. Is there an official tutorial on how to control it using voice over? Kind regards, Jakub
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412
Sep ’25
Battery health dropping daily by 1% everyday
Currently i am using an iphone 15 pro which is just 7 months old but it was good till this month it was at 97% even after using more than 6 months, but in recent fews days it is regularly dropping by 1% every day and now it is at 89% only with 10 to 12 days it dropped by 8% . Is my battery defective or something is wrong with my phone . bcoz of this i am very upset because of this bad decrease of battery health . i have heard it is normal to degrade by 1% monthly but mine is dropping daily its soo frustrating. and if my battery reaches under 80% within the warrenty period? will get a free battery replacement from apple or not ? I don’t have apple care+ . But its under 1 year standard warrenty . please reply apple as its soo frustrating
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379
Feb ’25
New ipados 18.3 beta troubleshooting
Hi apple, ive been having a problem with my ipad pro 5th generation. since updating my ipad it has been acting weird lately… to be specific it keeps closing twice randomly and the widgets turn white andcmy screen keeps going black when i go on apps it keeps exiting out of the app also the new siri is so slow and wouldnt answer when i say [hey siri] only on random ocasions please help me fix this problem because i need my ipad for studying… thank you.
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719
Jan ’25
Not able to receive silent pushes in background
I’ve developed the Pro Talkie app—a walkie-talkie solution designed to keep you connected with family and friends App Store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/pro-talkie/id6742051063 Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.protalkie.app While the app works flawlessly on Android and in the foreground on iOS, I’m facing issues with establishing connections when the app is in the background or terminated on iOS. Specifically, I’ve attempted the following: Silent pushes and alert payloads: These are intended to wake the app in the background, but they often fail—notifications may not be received or can be delayed by 20–30 minutes, leading to a poor user experience. VoIP pushes: These reliably wake the app, but they trigger the incoming call UI, which isn’t suitable for a walkie-talkie app that should connect directly without displaying a call screen. I’ve enabled all the necessary background modes (audio, remote notifications, VoIP, background fetch, processing), but the challenge remains. How can I ensure a consistent background connection on iOS without triggering the call UI?
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438
Mar ’25