iOS Accessibility Best Practices
Article Summary
Adrian Russell from Just Eat Takeaway turned on Screen Curtain and tried to order food through his own app. What he discovered was shocking: over 100 accessibility failures making the app nearly impossible to use with VoiceOver.
Just Eat Takeaway's iOS team conducted a comprehensive accessibility audit after user complaints revealed their app was unusable for VoiceOver users. They spent dozens of hours navigating their own app blind, documenting every barrier faced by users with visual impairments.
Key Takeaways
- Dates read as '1 7 slash 0 7 slash 2020' instead of readable format
- Modal dialogs failed to block content, letting VoiceOver read hidden screens
- Table view cells skipped middle items, making menu sections invisible
- Custom star rating controls were completely inaccessible to assistive tech
- Team now mandates VoiceOver demos in biweekly meetings before any release
The team fixed over 100 accessibility issues and embedded VoiceOver testing into their culture, transforming an unusable app into one that works for all users.
About This Article
Review buttons and similar grouped UI elements were being read as three separate items by VoiceOver instead of one control. This made the experience confusing for users with visual impairments.
Adrian Russell's team made the grouped elements accessible by setting isAccessibilityElement to true and enabling shouldGroupAccessibilityChildren. They also added accessibilityLabel and accessibilityHint properties so the grouped views would be treated as single accessible elements.
VoiceOver now reads grouped elements as unified controls with clear labels and hints. Instead of confusing multi-part announcements, users hear single coherent statements they can understand and interact with.