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Speak selection

This feature allows text to be read aloud. When you select a piece of text, the option to have it read aloud appears.

This feature is used not only by people with an visual impairment, but also in situations where users cannot look at the screen: in a car, for example. People with autism or focus and concentration problems also use this setting. And it is used not only by people with disabilities, but also in situations where users cannot look at the screen, such as in the car.

This feature is available on both iOS and Android. If we extrapolate our measurements to all Dutch residents with an iPhone, we are talking about a group of more than 250,000 people.

3.55%

use speak selection on iOS.

0.1%

use select to speak on Android.

VoiceOver

By the way, having a selected text read aloud is not the same as VoiceOver. Our results do not show any significant use of voice-over. But speak screen and speak selection, like VoiceOver, need good labelling.

Jeroen - Asset

My iPhone is my third eye.

Jeroen

Read the interview with Jeroen

Support in apps

Non-text content such as buttons and images must be labeled. Below you'll find an explanation how it can be added to an element in native and cross-platform apps.

On Android, you can use the contentDescription attribute to set an accessibility label.

You can also pass any kind of Span for greater control over pronunciation. For example, you can set a language by using LocaleSpan.

If another element is used to display the label, you can link the label by using the labelFor attribute.

// Set accessibility label
element.contentDescription = "Appt"

// Set accessibility label in Dutch language
val locale = Locale.forLanguageTag("nl-NL")
val localeSpan = LocaleSpan(locale)

val string = SpannableString("Appt")
string.setSpan(localeSpan, 0, string.length, Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE)

element.contentDescription = localeSpan

// Link visual label to field
textView.setLabelFor(R.id.editText)

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