react / react/react-native

Some `accessibilityRole`/`role` have no effect on both iOS and Android

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Needs: Triage :mag: Platform: Android Platform: iOS
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Description

Description

Some values for the props accessibilityRole and role have no effect on both iOS and Android platforms.
Meaning the screenreader doesn't read the role after the accessibilityLabel.

accessibilityRole
With no effect
On iOS
[
  'alert', 'combobox', 'menu', 'menubar', 'menuitem', 'radio', 'radiogroup', 'scrollbar', 'spinbutton', 'tab',
  'tabbar', 'tablist', 'timer', 'list', 'toolbar',
]
On Android
[
  'tabbar', // Throws error on Android
  'search', 'keyboardkey',
]
With questionable effect
On iOS
[
  'togglebutton', // Gets the Traits value: `Button`, while the 'switch` role gets 2 traits `Button` and `Toggle`. Shouldn't the role togglebutton have the same traits as the 'switch' role?
]
role
With no effect
On iOS
[
  'alert', 'alertdialog', 'application', 'article', 'banner', 'cell', 'columnheader','combobox', 'complementary',
  'contentinfo', 'definition', 'dialog', 'directory', 'document', 'feed', 'figure', 'form', 'grid', 'group',
  'list', 'listitem', 'log', 'main', 'marquee', 'math', 'menu', 'menubar', 'menuitem', 'meter', 'navigation',
  'none', 'note', 'option', 'presentation', 'radiogroup', 'region', 'row', 'rowgroup', 'rowheader', 'scrollbar',
  'searchbox', 'separator', 'slider', 'spinbutton', 'status', 'tab', 'table', 'tablist', 'tabpanel', 'term', 'timer',
  'toolbar', 'tooltip', 'tree', 'treegrid', 'treeitem',
]
On Android
[
  'alertdialog', 'application', 'article', 'banner', 'cell', 'columnheader', 'complementary', 'contentinfo', 'definition', 'dialog',
  'directory', 'document', 'feed', 'figure', 'form', 'group', 'listitem', 'log', 'main', 'marquee', 'math', 'meter', 'navigation',
  'note', 'option', 'presentation', 'region', 'row', 'rowgroup', 'rowheader', 'searchbox', 'separator', 'status', 'table', 'tablist',
  'tabpanel', 'term', 'tooltip', 'tree', 'treegrid', 'treeitem',
]
With questionable effect
On iOS
[
  'radio', // Not questionable, but if the same value is provided on the `accessibilityRole` prop, no effect is taken.
]
Steps to reproduce
  1. Run application either on ios or android yarn ios or yarn android
  2. Enable VoiceOver or TalkBack
  3. Inspect elements which indicates the chosen platform in red
  4. The screen reader will reader only the accessibilityLabel "Item" although it have a role
React Native Version

0.78.0

Affected Platforms

Runtime - Android, Runtime - iOS

Output of npx @react-native-community/cli info
System:
  OS: macOS 15.2
  CPU: (12) arm64 Apple M3 Pro
  Memory: 71.34 MB / 18.00 GB
  Shell:
    version: "5.9"
    path: /bin/zsh
Binaries:
  Node:
    version: 22.8.0
    path: /opt/homebrew/bin/node
  Yarn: Not Found
  npm:
    version: 10.8.2
    path: /opt/homebrew/bin/npm
  Watchman:
    version: 2024.09.09.00
    path: /opt/homebrew/bin/watchman
Managers:
  CocoaPods:
    version: 1.15.2
    path: /opt/homebrew/bin/pod
SDKs:
  iOS SDK:
    Platforms:
      - DriverKit 24.0
      - iOS 18.0
      - macOS 15.0
      - tvOS 18.0
      - visionOS 2.0
      - watchOS 11.0
  Android SDK: Not Found
IDEs:
  Android Studio: 2024.1 AI-241.18034.62.2412.12266719
  Xcode:
    version: 16.0/16A242d
    path: /usr/bin/xcodebuild
Languages:
  Java:
    version: 17.0.12
    path: /usr/bin/javac
  Ruby:
    version: 2.6.10
    path: /usr/bin/ruby
npmPackages:
  "@react-native-community/cli":
    installed: 15.0.1
    wanted: 15.0.1
  react:
    installed: 19.0.0
    wanted: 19.0.0
  react-native:
    installed: 0.78.0
    wanted: 0.78.0
  react-native-macos: Not Found
npmGlobalPackages:
  "*react-native*": Not Found
Android:
  hermesEnabled: true
  newArchEnabled: true
iOS:
  hermesEnabled: true
  newArchEnabled: true
Stacktrace or Logs
N/A
Reproducer

https://github.com/JoaoMosmann/ReactNativeVoiceOverRolesWithNoEffectReproducer-

Screenshots and Videos

Android Example:
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6ca4e808-c571-4758-a484-4d271810f33a

iOS Example:
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a5f8b125-eb0e-4420-bbfa-8f1afb5fd901

Whole list:

Image Image Image

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the linked ReactNativeVoiceOverRolesWithNoEffectReproducer and run it with yarn ios and yarn android. Check the listed accessibilityRole and role values using VoiceOver and TalkBack, then trace the platform accessibility-role handling. Done means the affected roles produce the expected announcements without Android errors.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
android, ios, react-native
Domain
accessibility, mobile
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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