Nextcloud IOs app accessibility issues

[tyrylu]

This is an issue in the spirit of the Android app accessibility review. All the below facts were discovered in the Nextcloud app version 2.21.3.1 on an Iphone 6 with czech locale settings on IOs 12.4.1.
I would gladly do a PR, however i have no Mac Os system at hand and editing the xib and storyboard files is not the most accessible xcode area anyway. 😞
For all the below, the steps to reproduce are simple and basically are try using Voiceover with the Nextcloud app.

General

• Some unlabeled panel and an upload button (also without a label) between favorites and photos panels

Files tab

• navigationControllerMenu - the menu with the sorting and etc. items should very likely have a better label
• stopTask and reloadTask buttons - seems to be related to a download progress, but should have better label
• Any way how to open a file's detail without downloading it? A voiceover double-tap starts a download sequence and when it has the file locally it shows a share sheet (not when the file is a for example .txt file, in this case it shows the details view)
• In a subfolder, navigationLogo is not likely a good label for the back button

File detail

• actionSheetModify button should probably be labeled better (it was not really obvious that it is a rename button)
• openFile could use a better label as well
• share as well, however at least it is understandable, but not localized

More tab

• It is not obvious that the user name can be activated
• Is the CLOUD ACCOUNT heading in the user settings a failure, or only some translation error?

Questions/suggestions

• How to favorite a file with Voiceover?
• Adding some Voiceover quick actions to the file list (delete, share etc.) would be definitely useful

[marinofaggiana]

Hi @tyrylu thanks for you consideration, do you have Test Flight for testing the beta ?

[tyrylu]

I could do the testing, i have the app, so you could likely invite me (same e-mail address as on Github).

[marinofaggiana]

please send me your email to ios @ nextcloud dot com for invite.

[tyrylu]

Alright, from a quick look it seems the report is still valid as is also for the current beta.

[jancborchardt]

@tyrylu awesome! :) I just did a test with VoiceOver and only saw this issue now! Here’s my findings too, I think many are duplicate from yours. There’s also some suggestions how to improve. cc @nextcloud/accessibility

• The upload button is unlabeled and has 2 elements (one tabulator, and one button inside). Should only be one element and labeled "Add or upload", of course translatable.
• In the header, the "Notification" icon label does not seem to be translatable, since it says "notifikation" in German too.
• The sort button says "navigation controller menu" (also in "Media" section). Should rather be "Sort".
• In the file list, it is not possible to get to the 3-dot-menu and open it. It should be selectable and have the label "Actions".
• In the detail view of a file, the "Share" and "Open file" labels do not seem to be translatable?
• In the detail view, the "Previous file" and "Next file" buttons are unlabeled and say something like "item arrow right". Rather they should be labeled "Previous file" and "Next file".
• As soon as the controls vanish, it is not possible to get out of the detail view in VoiceOver mode. You need to close the app and open it again.
• In "Media", it is not possible to get to the media and open it. Only the headers are selectable. Instead, the media elements should be selectable too and their filename should be read out.
• In the "More" section, the top only reads the username, and it’s not apparent you can edit accounts there. This is not even apparent when you see the element. We could add a specific entry first in list saying "Accounts". Or a line below the name saying "Account settings".

[MarcoZehe]

Thanks for filing this, @tyrylu, and for updating it, @jancborchardt! I recently started using the iOS app and saw most of these issues, too, just hadn't got around to filing them yet. A few pointers:

As soon as the controls vanish, it is not possible to get out of the detail view in VoiceOver mode. You need to close the app and open it again.

This can be solved by implementing the appropriate method for the VoiceOver Z gesture, or VoiceOver Escape. Alternatively, one could make the item modal and tell users that way that the other elements are hidden and this should be dismissed with the scrub gesture.

A great example that shows many techniques that are also relevant here is this year's sample app.

More information can also be found here.

@marinofaggiana, I will also send you my e-mail for a TestFlight invitation. :)

[MarcoZehe]

Unfortunately, ios at nextcloud dot com seems to be an invalid e-mail address, I get a 550 returned on each attempt. @marinofaggiana, has the alias been disabled since you posted this?

[henningoschwald]

Sorry for posting the same again as in #646, I just saw it is closed after posting my comment.

In an earlier version of the Nextcloud IOS app I managed to open the three dot menu in the file list by focussing an item in the list, then double-tapping and holding the element and flick it to the left. I just tested it again and id didn't work any more, rather than opening the context menu for the item, this now triggers deletion of the item. When flicking the item to the right instead, it triggers the favorite/unfavorite action, although without giving any indication. For files I can access context menu items such as "open with" or "share" by double-tapping and holding the element and moving around my finger, but for directories this doesn't work, I just can not find a button.

The common way for accessing such contextual actions is adding them as custom accessibility actions. This solution does not require to permanently display a menu button for every item, instead voiceover announces "actions available" after reading an item with custom actions and the user can cycle through the available actions by swiping up or down. To get an idea about how it works, just open the telephone app, go to the call history and touch an item in the list. Voiceover will read the item, followed by "actions available". By swiping up or down with one finger, you can cycle through the options "activate", "delete" and "more information". A double-tap then triggers the selected action.

[MarcoZehe]

These CustomActions are a good idea whenever there are such entries that have multiple swipe actions to the left or right etc. to perform tasks, or which always have repetitive buttons associated with them. These should then be marked as not being AccessibilityElements, and the actions those buttons perform should be added to the CustomActions rotor as @henningoschwald describes above. Therefore, each entry only gets one VoiceOver focus stop, not 4 or 5. Efficiency is paramount.

[the-swissionary]

Hello! Just wanted to chime in and express my hope that Custom Actions will be implemented as soon as possible.
Currently, essential tasks, such as sharing a folder with other NextCloud Users, can‘t be performed while VoiceOver is running.
This is because swiping on the folder name, which sighted users must do to activate the corresponding menu, performs a different action for VoiceOver.
Please therefore make sure those actions can be performed by defining Custom VO Actions, as explained here:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiaccessibilitycustomaction

I tried both NextCloud versions: The one currently in the App Store as well as the Beta distributed on TestFlight.
I also did send an email via the „Beta Feedback“ button, which wasn‘t replied to though.

[tyrylu]

Any progress after a quarter of an year on this would be welcome, but still no change in the latest beta. I'd much like to help with that, but doing the development on a Mac Os vm... Probably not an ideal setup.