How can I support VoiceOver in UIPickerView on an iPad with an iPhone application (not universal)?

Question

In general, I look at the Apple UICatalog sample code for basic VoiceOver support, but it looks like the sample code has VoiceOver support for UIPickerViews. Do I need to provide an accessibilityLabel method to add VoiceOver support? I tried to implement the UIPickerViewAccessibilityDelegate methods, but the voice message only reads the labels in my selection view, not a hint to scroll up or down to change the values.

Also, my selector is configured to represent the input of a UITextField. Therefore, I am not sure if this is important or not.

Update: https://github.com/stevemoser/VoiceOverPicker

I created a sample project demonstrating the problem. The example shows a typical selection and a text field. There is also a collector that is configured for the presentation property of the input field of the text field. It seems I can not activate either the collector by simply clicking on it using VoiceOver. Although I can activate one of them by scrolling (left and right) through the views on the screen. Any ideas?

Update 2: It seems that if the application is an iPhone application running on an iPhone or iPad running on an iPad, it works fine, but if it is an iPhone application running on an iPad, clicking to select UIPickerView does not work.

Answer 1

Are you just using vanilla UIPickerView, using headers for each row (and not custom views)? If so, you have nothing to do.

You mentioned that VoiceOver reads the label correctly on each line, so we know that the UIPickerView correctly has the isAccessibilityElement parameter set to YES. It also reads accessibility tags correctly.

Is it possible that you interact with the collector before he can read the availability? (For the benefit of others, accessibilityHint is “swipe down or down with one finger to adjust the value” that Steve spoke about in his question.) Or maybe some kind of notification changes the focus of VoiceOver before the tooltip is readable ?

Answer 2

By default, if your selector is available when you focus on it using VoiceOver, it will read something in these lines:

"[ROW LABEL] Adjusts [# number] from the [#total] selection item" a 2 to 3 seconds pause, then "Swipe up or down to select a value"

A few notes:

• There is 2 to 3 seconds between reading a tag and a hint; make sure you wait for it.
• If you provide your own advice, it will not be read by default. I guess,
• Tooltips are only read when you reach a specific control, either by directly pressing it, or by scrolling to the right or left in the control. it will not read if you skip 2 fingers down or up.
• Make sure you're testing the actual device, not the simulator, as it does not show everything that VoiceOver announces.