klemensstrasser, 1 month ago

Voice Control is an #a11y feature where you speak out an interaction and the system does it for you.

The easiest example is a tab. To post this thread on X, I could say „Tab Post All“ and the system does it for me.

There are other gestures, but we stick with the tab for this thread.

klemensstrasser, 1 month ago

Now in the example I just gave, it’s clear what you have to say, as the button has a simple text label that just says „Post all“.

But if you work with icons like I do, it’s not always clear what you have to say to trigger the interaction. 😖

There is a solution though - You can say „Show Names“ and the system shows you the actual label of each interactive element

klemensstrasser, 1 month ago

But if you have long labels on interactive elements, like I sometimes do, it can become quite tedious to speak it out in full 😰

So you can also ask „Show numbers“ to get a number for each element and then say „Tab 5“ to interact with the fifth element on screen.

klemensstrasser, 1 month ago

But there is a better solution. You can also add custom activation commands for Voice Control by adding ‚accessibilityInputLabels()‘. 😍

As for almost everything, there is a great @twostraws tutorial on the matter:

https://www.hackingwithswift.com/quick-start/swiftui/how-to-add-custom-activation-commands-for-voice-control

klemensstrasser, 1 month ago

Now after this long introduction, let’s come to how I used accessibilityInputLabels to enhance Voice Control support for @studysnacksapp 😋

I have a focus view with three items with long labels. Using VoiceControl I need to say: „Tab Starter. 5 known pairs, one after another“ to actually activate it.🫤

Adding „Starter“ to the accessibilityInputLabels, I can simply say „Tab Starter“ to active it.

Much better! 😍

klemensstrasser, 1 month ago

To create a new list, I have a plus button on this screen. The command to active it is „Add List“.

But this might not be intuitive. A user might want to say „New List“, „Create List“ - or simply „New“ or „Add“

So I just added them all as accessibilityInputLabels.

Nice! 😁

klemensstrasser, 1 month ago

One last example!

I learn Spanish and French, so the names of these lists include the language to distinguish between them. 🇫🇷 🇪🇸

But for Voice Control, it’s tedious to speak out „Fruits (Spanish)“.
So adding „Fruits“ as accessibilityInputLabel makes it easier to interact!

klemensstrasser, 1 month ago

That’s it! Hope you learned something ☺️

The Study Snacks update will be released on May 16th in time for the Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

If you don’t have anything planned for #GAAD yet, why not enhance your Voice Control support too? 😊

https://apps.apple.com/at/app/study-snacks-languages-more/id6444380323?l=en-GB