Accessibility: GiphyGridController cells are inaccessible while using VoiceOver

[3arrett]

Using the latest version 1.3.0 and the GiphyGridController embedded.

While using the VoiceOver, neither the Cells nor the UICollectionView is accessible. You can tap a cell and it will read presumably the fileName but gives no focus and you can't scroll the collection view either.

[cgmaier]

hey @3arrett, would love to help with this. do you have any pointers on how to achieve this behavior?

is it just a matter of exposing / documenting accessibility labels for the UICollectionView and cells?

[3arrett]

Yeah, by default UICollectionViewCells aren't an accessibility element and infer their contents if any. Since the only content in the GPHMediaCell is the ImageView, it why tapping it reads off the file name.

At a minimum you can just add isAccessibilityElement = true on the GPHMediaCell itself. Not knowing the full API, if you have a relevant name for the cell you can add that as the accessibilityLabel itself. Otherwise if you're just ending up being generic, it'd always be good to announce it's position within the datasource, e.g. GIF 3 of 700

There shouldn't be much more than that because once you have cells accessible, you are now able to triple swipe up and down to page through all the elements.

[3arrett]

Great! A great resource also to take look into is the WWDC videos. Here are some of the quick overview ones you can take a look into to:

• Design For Everyone - WWDC 2017 - https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2017/806
• VoiceOver: App Testing Beyond The Visuals - WWDC 2018 - https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/226
• Deliver an Exceptional Accessibility Experience - WWDC 2018 - https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/230

[lizmaddy]

@cgmaier - Any update on resolving this issue?

[cgmaier]

hey everyone, as of v2.1.9 GIPHY iOS SDK supports VoiceOver.

We added accessibility information for our GiphyGridController cells - every cell has descriptive text for VoiceOver to read by one-finger tap, and it’s possible to triple-swipe up and down to page through all the elements with VoiceOver on.