How do I set the accessibility label for a particu

Question

We use KIF for our functional testing, and it uses the accessibility label of elements to determine where to send events. I'm currently trying to test the behaviour of a UISegmentedControl, but in order to do so I need to set different accessibility labels for the different segments of the control. How do I set the accessibility label for a particular segment?

Answer 1

As Vortex said, the array is right to left with [0] starting on the right. You can set every single accessibility option by accessing the subviews. Since the subviews are optional, it is good to pull out the subview first, and then assign the accessibility traits that you want. Swift 4 example for a simple two option segment control:

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
    super.viewDidLayoutSubviews()
    guard let rightSegment = segmentControl.subviews.first, let leftSegment = segmentControl.subviews.last else { return }
    rightSegment.accessibilityLabel = "A label for the right segment."
    rightSegment.accessibilityHint = "A hint for the right segment."
    leftSegment.accessibilityLabel = "A label for the left segment."
    leftSegment.accessibilityHint = "A hint for the left segment."
}

Answer 2

As Vertex said,

obj-c

[[[self.segmentOutlet subviews] objectAtIndex:3] setAccessibilityLabel:@"GENERAL_SEGMENT"];

swift

self.segmentOutlet.subviews[3].accessibilityLabel = "GENERAL_SEGMENT"

some advice so you don't go crazy like I did:

1. To scroll in accessibility mode swipe three fingers
2. The indexes of the segments are backwards than you would expect, i.e. the furthest segment to the right is the 0th index and the furthest to the left is the n'th index where n is the number of elements in the UISegmentControl

Answer 3

If you look at the segmented control thru the accessibility inspector, you find that the segments are UISegment objects. Moreover, they turn out to be direct subviews of the UISegmentedControl. That fact suggests the following insanely crazy but perfectly safe Swift 4 code to set the accessibility labels of the segments of a UISegmentedControl:

    let seg = // the UISegmentedControl
    if let segclass = NSClassFromString("UISegment") {
        let segments = seg.subviews.filter {type(of:$0) == segclass}
            .sorted {$0.frame.minX < $1.frame.minX}
        let labels = ["Previous article", "Next article"] // or whatever
        for pair in zip(segments,labels) {
            pair.0.accessibilityLabel = pair.1
        }
    }

Answer 4

I'm just getting started with KIF myself, so I haven't tested this, but it may be worth a try. I'm sure I'll have the same issue soon, so I'd be interested to hear if it works.

First, UIAccessibility Protocol Reference has a note under accessibilityLabel that says:

"If you supply UIImage objects to display in a UISegmentedControl, you can set this property on each image to ensure that the segments are properly accessible."

So, I'm wondering if you could set the accessibilityLabel on each NSString object as well and be able to use that to access each segment with KIF. As a start, you could try creating a couple of strings, setting their accessibility labels, and using [[UISegmentedControl alloc] initWithItems:myStringArray]; to populate it.

Please update us on your progress. I'd like to hear how this goes