Support for iOS VoiceOver screen reader with AIR?

Report · Jun 18, 2012

Does anybody know what the situation is with support for the iOS VoiceOver screen reader in AIR apps? More specifically, does VoiceOver on the iPad and iPhone work with AIR apps? If so, how well? If not, does Adobe have any interest in making VoiceOver on iOS work with AIR apps?

I'd be especially interested in getting in touch with anybody at Adobe who has interest in accessibility on iOS devices. Any leads would be appreciated.

William Mitchell

Research Programmer

School of Information: Science, Technology, and Arts

The University of Arizona

Report · Jun 18, 2012

Hi William:

No, AIR doesnt support any native accessibility functionality on iOS. This is something very difficult to achieve even with native extensions. The simple reason behind this is that...

For Voice Over to understand UI elements on Screen they need to be native controls (With all the meta information set through iOS accessibility APIs, So voice over knows what to speak.) but in case of AIR application what iOS knows about is a single UIView. Any controls (Dropdowns, buttons, images) that you show in your Application are nothing but pixels to render as far as iOS is concerned.

Report · Jun 20, 2012

Thanks for that note! I've done some experimentation and that's pretty much what I've found -- just the "nothing there" clicking when moving over various Flex controls, although VoiceOver does recognize the Spark TextArea.

I'd still be interested in hearing from anybody at Adobe who's involved with accessbility, on iOS or otherwise.

Report · May 08, 2014

Its been almost 2 years since you posted this question. So, in that time there has been no updates or progress in this area? It would be great for Air to support this. I understand the native UI, but still.

Thanks,

Garrett

Report · Jan 13, 2016

Hi,

Any workaround for this issue?

Is possible to get voice from an AIR app with any ANE solution?

Report · Aug 15, 2016

An ANE could support some fundamentals... You could have it replicate some of the content with native elements on screen and send events back. A lot of work for sure, almost easier to just write the whole thing natively.

Report · Apr 20, 2018

The Lightroom Apple TV App is mostly accessible with Voiceover.

Sadly, IOS 11.3 still sees nothing.