1. Overview
A sighted user takes in a screen at a glance. A VoiceOver user meets it one element at a time, in the order VoiceOver chooses. A Switch Control user steps through it item by item. So both the number of elements and their order matter.
VoiceOver's default order runs from top to bottom and from left to right. Each text and each image is a separate stop. A product card with a picture, a name, a price and a rating can take four swipes. Fifty cards take two hundred. Grouping turns each card into one stop.
Gestures are the other half of the problem. A swipe to delete or a long press for a menu is hidden from someone who cannot see the item. It may be impossible for someone who cannot make the gesture. Each gesture needs another way in. On iOS that way is an accessibility action.
Unlock the rest of this lesson
You have read the free preview of Grouping, reading order, rotors and actions in Module 5: iOS accessibility. The full lesson, its knowledge check and the module certificate come with a plan, bought here on the web.
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Free with no account: the first lesson, Why accessibility, and who it is for, the European Accessibility Act flashcards and the overview of every lesson.
Sources
- Apple Developer, SwiftUI: AccessibilityChildBehavior, accessibilitySortPriority(_:), accessibilityAction(named:_:), accessibilityAdjustableAction(_:) and accessibilityRotor(_:entries:entryLabel:).
- Apple Developer, SwiftUI: isModal, AccessibilityActionKind escape, AccessibilityFocusState and AccessibilityNotification.Announcement.
- Apple Developer, UIKit: accessibilityElements, UIAccessibilityCustomAction, accessibilityPerformEscape() and UIAccessibility.post(notification:argument:).
- Apple, iPhone User Guide: Use VoiceOver gestures and Control VoiceOver using the rotor, for the Magic Tap examples, the rotor and the default reading order.
- ETSI, CEN and CENELEC, EN 301 549 V4.1.1 (2026-09), clauses 11.1.3.1, 11.1.3.2, 11.2.4.3, 11.2.5.1, 11.2.5.7, 11.4.1.2, 11.4.1.3 and 11.5.2.9 to 11.5.2.15, available from the ETSI standards server.
- W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, with Understanding 4.1.3 Status Messages, and the Group Note Guidance on Applying WCAG 2 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT).
