ASEditableTextNode contents not accessible to VoiceOver

[ay8s]

Just had a report of this, it looks like the contents typed into an ASEditableTextNode aren't accessible when using VoiceOver. Will try and dig in tomorrow and see if I can do a pull request.

[maicki]

@ay8s Hey, did you find something out yet? Thanks!

[ay8s]

For now I ended up updating the accessibility value with the text from the textView in editableTextNodeDidUpdateText:

Also digging into a few other reports. Curious if Pinterest has any issues at all with ASEditableTextNode accessibility? Seems odd it's not free as a wrapper around UITextView.

[ay8s]

Digging into this one some more, there are pretty drastic differences in what VoiceOver reads between ASEditableTextNode and UITextView. In this example I simply put a ASEditableTextNode (green) at the top and a UITextView (red) below. Both are within a ASViewController with the UITextView wrapped in a ASDisplayNode.

No other settings were changed for either the ASEditableTextNode or the UITextView.

• Doesn't say that it is a text field.
• Doesn't say "Double tap to edit"
• Doesn't say how to access misspelled words.

When inputting characters...

• Doesn't read completed words.
• Doesn't read insertion points.

Will continue to dig in, now sure if there may be something conflicting with the expected VO output.

Video: https://cl.ly/49c21c61cd58

[ay8s]

Digging in more to this today after exploring just using UITextView. Seems that if I use ASDK_ACCESSIBILITY_DISABLE it works correctly. Oddly ASViewController's that use ASEditableTextNode as the root node work fine, only when a ASEditableTextNode is included as a subnode default behavior is lost.

[ay8s]

@maicki @nguyenhuy So I think I've figured out the cause. When a ASEditableTextNode is a root node its textView is available via "view". This isn't the case when it is a subnode. When we're collecting the accessibility elements here we're not looking for the textView.

Texture/Source/Details/_ASDisplayViewAccessiblity.mm

Lines 215 to 234 in 465abb1

	for (ASDisplayNode *subnode in node.subnodes) {
	if (subnode.isAccessibilityElement) {
	// An accessiblityElement can either be a UIView or a UIAccessibilityElement
	if (subnode.isLayerBacked) {
	// No view for layer backed nodes exist. It's necessary to create a UIAccessibilityElement that represents this node
	UIAccessibilityElement *accessiblityElement = [ASAccessibilityElement accessibilityElementWithContainer:view node:subnode containerNode:node];
	[elements addObject:accessiblityElement];
	} else {
	// Accessiblity element is not layer backed just add the view as accessibility element
	[elements addObject:subnode.view];
	}
	} else if (subnode.isLayerBacked) {
	// Go down the hierarchy of the layer backed subnode and collect all of the UIAccessibilityElement
	CollectUIAccessibilityElementsForNode(subnode, node, view, elements);
	} else if ([subnode accessibilityElementCount] > 0) {
	// UIView is itself a UIAccessibilityContainer just add it
	[elements addObject:subnode.view];
	}
	}

I quickly hacked together adding the textView to the elements array and VoiceOver returned the correct information back to the user.

Any downsides you can see adding the following? I'm sure there may be a better more elegant solution.

  for (ASDisplayNode *subnode in node.subnodes) {
    if (subnode.isAccessibilityElement) {
      
      // An accessiblityElement can either be a UIView or a UIAccessibilityElement
      if (subnode.isLayerBacked) {
        // No view for layer backed nodes exist. It's necessary to create a UIAccessibilityElement that represents this node
        UIAccessibilityElement *accessiblityElement = [ASAccessibilityElement accessibilityElementWithContainer:view node:subnode containerNode:node];
        [elements addObject:accessiblityElement];
      } else {
        // Accessiblity element is not layer backed just add the view as accessibility element
        [elements addObject:subnode.view];
      }
    } else if (subnode.isLayerBacked) {
      // Go down the hierarchy of the layer backed subnode and collect all of the UIAccessibilityElement
      CollectUIAccessibilityElementsForNode(subnode, node, view, elements);
    } else if ([subnode accessibilityElementCount] > 0) {
      // UIView is itself a UIAccessibilityContainer just add it
      [elements addObject:subnode.view];
    } else if([subnode isKindOfClass:[ASEditableTextNode class]]){
      // UITextView is itself a UIAccessibilityElement just add it
      [elements addObject:((ASEditableTextNode *)subnode).textView];
    }
  }

[garrettmoon]

Could we set isAccessibilityElement to YES on init in ASEditableTextNode? Then it would add subside.view which is the textView in this case?

[ay8s]

@garrettmoon When I try that VoiceOver simply reads "Actions available".

[ay8s]

Closing