Android: Overriding default actions

Description

Using the accessibilityActions prop you can override the default usage hints for the actions “activate” and “longpress” on Android by giving them a new label. While this works on most components, on <Button>, <Text>, <TextInput>, and <Picker> this has no effect.

React Native version:

v0.63

Expected Behavior

If the label for “activate” or “longpress” is overridden via the accessibilityActions prop, screen readers should announce the hint of “Double-tap to <your custom label>” or “Double-tap and hold to <your custom label>” rather than “Double-tap to activate” or “Double-tap and hold to longpress”.

Android Details

Since this properly works on most components, this is likely an issue on the Javascript side of these props simply not being passed along.

[blavalla]

@huzaifaaak, on Android, React Native’s “accessibilityActions” API (which would include the accessibilityActions and onAccessibilityAction props) has three main purposes:

1.) To override the default “usage hint” label for the click or long-click actions, which is something Talkback allows you to do. 2.) To create a custom accessibility action, which can be triggered via Talkback’s actions menu. 3.) To change the behavior that occurs when a specific accessibility action (either custom, or a built-in one) is triggered.

To achieve #1, you’d only need to use the accessibilityActions prop, and add a label for either the “activate” or “longpress” actions. Setting a label here would change Talkback from saying “Double-tap to activate” to “Double-tap to <your custom label>”. This feature is what this issue is describing, and what currently doesn’t work on all components.

To create a fully custom action (#2), you’d need to give the action a name, a label, and then use the onAccessibilityAction prop to define behavior for that action. I am not sure if that is currently working for the listed problematic components, but my guess would be that it’s not, as I assume the entire accessibilityActions prop is simply not supported.

To support #3, I think you’d only need to implement the onAccessibilityAction prop, but you’d only be able to use it to override built-in actions such as activate, longpress on Android, or magicTap on iOS.

Feel free to investigate a bit to determine if use cased 2 and 3 are working not, I think a fix could be made at the same time as the fix to support overriding the usage hints, as they are likely connected problems. Let me know if you have any other questions!

[huzaifaaak]

@amarlette #31532 fixes this issue.