Give your simulator superpowers

RocketSim: An Essential Developer Tool
as recommended by Apple

Issue 130
Aug 30, 2022

Accessible apps should be the standard, and there's no reason why you wouldn't make your app accessible!

Making apps accessible is often seen as a 'roadmap issue.' Building new features is more important than working on accessibility. In my opinion, there's just a knowledge gap to solve. Adding accessibility labels, traits, or grouping elements should be part of normal development.

Many apps support dark mode, which is an accessibility feature as well! Once you've adopted it, you must test your views on it accordingly. Though: does it take that much time to verify?

What if you trained yourself to at least know the basics of adding VoiceOver support? You might be able to improve your app's VoiceOver navigation without even testing it.

Either way, this SwiftLee Weekly is unique and focuses on Accessibility articles only. I've curated each piece based on what I think helps you to gain that basic knowledge to improve your apps along the way. 

Enjoy this week's SwiftLee Weekly!

THIS WEEK'S BLOG POST
If you're building apps with SwiftUI, there's a high chance your views already have relatively good VoiceOver support. Though, a few quick wins for you to apply will make your app's navigation even better. I've invited Dani to write the first ever SwiftLee guest article and tell you how this works.

SPONSORED
If you’re a mid/senior iOS developer who’s looking to improve both your skills and your salary level, then join this 100% free online crash course, starting on March 28th. Click to learn more.

SWIFTLEE JOBS
Get your job positions listed on all 190+ SwiftLee articles and 4 SwiftLee Weekly editions. Read more.
Browse Swift-related Jobs, or add your own on SwiftLee Jobs.

CURATED FROM THE COMMUNITY

SWIFTUI
While there are many more articles from Mobile A11Y to explore, I liked this one for its short but to-the-point explanation of dynamic text styles. It also covers custom fonts, and there are a few pitfalls for you to avoid.
If you’re not following Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats yet, it’s time to do it! Or at least follow his #365DaysIOSAccessibility to get 365 accessibility-related tweets. Yes! That’s a year-long of tweets (!!)
Did you know there are seven text sizes available for your users on iOS? It’s essential to test your app’s support for these text sizes, and Nil Coalescing is here to explain how that works in SwiftUI.
It’s not only about implementing accessibility support but also about verifying your implementation. Bas Broek will tell you how to verify VoiceOver support using the Accessibility Inspector n this article. Spoiler alert: he’s showing you more of the accessibility inspector, a tool you should explore.
Accessibility rotors give you another way to improve VoiceOver navigation support. Majid Jabrayilov explains to you how this works.
It’s so common to curate community articles only that I almost forget to link to Apple’s documentation. Apple provides many resources, from which this links to their starting page. Check out the accessibility-related WWDC Sessions and the Human Interface Section related to Accessibility.

NEWSLETTER
I had the honor to meet Robin Kanatzar at SwiftConf not long ago. Besides being a great golfer, she also has a newsletter on accessibility for iOS and Android! A newsletter to add to your reading list to stay up to date on the latest news, articles, and techniques.

SPONSORED
Although you can create an app simply by throwing some code together, without best practices and a robust architecture, you’ll soon end up with unmanageable spaghetti code. Learn how to create solid and maintainable apps with fewer bugs using this free guide.