Audit accessibility

Treat this as a functional requirement, not a polish pass. For public-sector and regulated clients it is contractual, and it is far cheaper to get right while the screen is being written.

VoiceOver

• Every icon-only control has .accessibilityLabel — a verb phrase, not the icon name: "Add job", not "plus".
• Composite rows use .accessibilityElement(children: .combine) so a row is one swipe, not five. Check the combined announcement reads as a sentence and puts the important part first.
• Decorative images are hidden: .accessibilityHidden(true).
• Status conveyed by a chip or colour also has text in the announcement — a StatusChip with "In progress" is fine, a coloured dot is not.
• Custom controls declare .accessibilityAddTraits(.isButton) and respond to activation.
• Swipe actions are unreachable by VoiceOver alone: anything destructive or important available only as a swipe needs an equivalent in a menu or the detail screen.
• Loading and error states announce themselves. ProgressView has a label; a newly shown ErrorBanner should be announced rather than appearing silently.

Dynamic Type

• No fixed frame(height:) on anything containing text; constrain width, let height grow.
• lineLimit used deliberately, with .minimumScaleFactor only where truncation would lose meaning.
• Test at the largest accessibility size. Rows that hold a title, a chip and a date on one line will need to reflow — use ViewThatFits or check @Environment(\.dynamicTypeSize) and stack vertically above .accessibility1.
• Never disable Dynamic Type with .font(.system(size:)) and a hard number.

Colour and contrast

• 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text and meaningful icons. Check both light and dark appearance.
• Never encode meaning in colour alone — pair it with text or a shape.
• Use semantic colours (.primary, .secondary, Color(.systemBackground)) so Increase Contrast and dark mode are handled for free.
• Check with Differentiate Without Colour and Increase Contrast enabled.

Interaction

• Hit targets at least 44×44 points. A Button wrapping a small Image needs padding, not a smaller icon.
• Nothing depends on a gesture with no alternative (long press, drag, shake).
• .accessibilityReduceMotion respected for anything that moves more than a fade.
• Focus order follows reading order; @FocusState moves sensibly through forms, and submitLabel matches what the field actually does.

Content

• Sentence case, British English, no jargon in error messages.
• Field labels are visible, not placeholder-only — a placeholder disappears the moment someone types.
• Error text says what to do next, not just what went wrong.

How to check

1. Enable VoiceOver on a device and traverse the screen with swipes only. If you cannot complete the primary task, it fails.
2. Set the largest accessibility text size in Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size and look for clipping and overlap.
3. Turn on Increase Contrast, Reduce Motion, Differentiate Without Colour.
4. Xcode's Accessibility Inspector audit on each screen — it catches unlabelled elements and contrast failures quickly, but it does not catch a nonsensical announcement, so do step 1 as well.

Verification

• Every icon-only control labelled.
• Rows combine and read sensibly.
• Primary task completable with VoiceOver alone.
• Layout intact at the largest accessibility text size.
• No meaning carried by colour alone; contrast checked in both appearances.
• Hit targets 44×44 or larger.
• Loading, empty, error and offline states all accessible — they are easy to forget because they are rarely on screen while you work.
• Findings listed with file, the specific control, and the fix.