Android: How to change the control type for Accessibility

Question

There are some controls in our app which we'd like to update the control type read out by Talkback. For example: A TextView which would better be described as a link, or an ImageView that would better be described as a button.

We could simply update the content description to report out the desired control type, though I am wondering if there is a better way? If there is another way, can it be done both through the view XML and dynamically in the code behind?

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible to change the type. It is called roleDescription. You would change it as follows:

ViewCompat.setAccessibilityDelegate(yourView,
    object : AccessibilityDelegateCompat() {
        override fun onInitializeAccessibilityNodeInfo(v: View, info: AccessibilityNodeInfoCompat) {
            super.onInitializeAccessibilityNodeInfo(v, info)
            info.roleDescription = "Button"
        }
})

(use string resources and translate the strings to all languages supported by your app)

This cannot be done via XML by default, but you could look into writing your own binding adapter for this.