React Native Accessible Selectable

Helpers to build accessible selectable components like checkboxes or radio buttons in React Native

The Problem:

On double tap VoiceOver will read the content of the focused element. When you try to build a custom checkbox and make it accessible, you probably want to add selected to the accessibilityTraits, depending on whether the checkbox is currently checked or not. This works well on focus. VoiceOver will announce the state of your component. But on double tap it will first read the old state and then the new one. This can be quite confusing for users.

The underlying problem is, that the decision to change the state from "not selected" to "selected" (or vice versa) is done in JavaScript and runs asynchronously after the tap. So VoiceOver will start to read before the state has changed.

The Solution:

This library solves this problem by toggling the "selected" state natively. All you need to do to use it, is to wrap your component in a call to makeSelectable. The downside is, that you cannot cancel the toggle anymore. Your component will now have the same restriction as the native Switch component.

This problem is inherent for VoiceOver. TalkBack does not have this issue because it does not read the currently focused element's content on double tap. However it also does not give any feedback when toggling between radiobutton_checked and radiobutton_unchecked state. This library implements the suggestion from the React Native accessibility docs and sends a manual click event to accounce this state change.

Getting started

$ npm install react-native-accessible-selectable --save

Mostly automatic installation

$ react-native link react-native-accessible-selectable

Manual installation

iOS

1. In Xcode, in the project navigator, right click Libraries ➜ Add Files to [your project's name]
2. Go to node_modules ➜ react-native-accessible-selectable and add RNAccessibleSelectable.xcodeproj
3. In Xcode, in the project navigator, select your project. Add libRNAccessibleSelectable.a to your project's Build Phases ➜ Link Binary With Libraries
4. Run your project (Cmd+R)

Android

1. Open up android/app/src/main/java/[...]/MainActivity.java

   • Add import me.kuehle.RNAccessibleSelectablePackage; to the imports at the top of the file
   • Add new RNAccessibleSelectablePackage() to the list returned by the getPackages() method

2. Append the following lines to android/settings.gradle:

   include ':react-native-accessible-selectable'
   project(':react-native-accessible-selectable').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, 	'../node_modules/react-native-accessible-selectable/android')

3. Insert the following lines inside the dependencies block in android/app/build.gradle:

   compile project(':react-native-accessible-selectable')

Usage

import { TouchableNativeFeedback, TouchableOpacity } from "react-native";
import { makeSelectable } from "react-native-accessible-selectable";
 
const SelectableTouchable = makeSelectable(
    Platform.select({
        android: TouchableNativeFeedback,
        ios: TouchableOpacity
    })
);
 
type Props = {
    label: string,
    checked: boolean,
    onChange: () => void
};
 
class MyCheckBox extends React.PureComponent<Props> {
    render() {
        const { label, checked, onChange } = this.props;
 
        return (
            <SelectableTouchable
                accessibilityComponentType={
                    checked ? "radiobutton_checked" : "radiobutton_unchecked"
                }
                accessibilityTraits={
                    checked ? ["button", "selected"] : ["button"]
                }
                onPress={onChange}
            >
                <Text>{label}</Text>
                <Image source={checked ? checkboxChecked : checkboxUnchecked} />
            </SelectableTouchable>
        );
    }
}