GO FURTHER, FASTER: Try the Swift Career Accelerator today! >>

Fixing Word Scramble

Paul Hudson    @twostraws   

In project 5 we built Word Scramble, a game where users were given a random eight-letter word and had to produce new words using its letters. This mostly works great with VoiceOver: no parts of the app are inaccessible, although that doesn’t mean we can’t do better.

To see an obvious pain point, try adding a word. You’ll see it slide into the table underneath the prompt, but if you tap into it with VoiceOver you’ll realize it isn’t read well: the letter count is read as “five circle, image”, and the text is a separate element.

There are a few ways of improving this, but probably the best is to make both those items a single group where the children are ignored by VoiceOver, then add a label for the whole group that contains a much more natural description.

Our current code looks like this:

Section {
    ForEach(usedWords, id: \.self) { word in
        HStack {
            Image(systemName: "\(word.count).circle")
            Text(word)
        }
    }
}

To fix this we need to group the elements inside the HStack together so we can apply our VoiceOver customization:

Section {
    ForEach(usedWords, id: \.self) { word in
        HStack {
            Image(systemName: "\(word.count).circle")
            Text(word)
        }
        .accessibilityElement()
        .accessibilityLabel("\(word), \(word.count) letters")
    }
}

Alternatively, you could break that text up to have a hint as well as a label, like this:

HStack {
    Image(systemName: "\(word.count).circle")
    Text(word)
}
.accessibilityElement()
.accessibilityLabel(word)
.accessibilityHint("\(word.count) letters")    

Regardless of which you choose, if you try the game again you’ll hear it now reads “spill, five letters”, which is much better.

Hacking with Swift is sponsored by Essential Developer.

SPONSORED Transform your career with the iOS Lead Essentials. This Black Friday, unlock over 40 hours of expert training, mentorship, and community support to secure your place among the best devs. Click for early access to this limited offer and a free crash course.

Save your spot

Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!

BUY OUR BOOKS
Buy Pro Swift Buy Pro SwiftUI Buy Swift Design Patterns Buy Testing Swift Buy Hacking with iOS Buy Swift Coding Challenges Buy Swift on Sundays Volume One Buy Server-Side Swift Buy Advanced iOS Volume One Buy Advanced iOS Volume Two Buy Advanced iOS Volume Three Buy Hacking with watchOS Buy Hacking with tvOS Buy Hacking with macOS Buy Dive Into SpriteKit Buy Swift in Sixty Seconds Buy Objective-C for Swift Developers Buy Beyond Code

Was this page useful? Let us know!

Average rating: 4.8/5

 
Unknown user

You are not logged in

Log in or create account
 

Link copied to your pasteboard.