Accessibility

All upstream accessibility props and actions work as documented in the React Native accessibility guide. This page lists only what is different on desktop.

react-native-gpui describes your app to the operating system as an accessibility tree, read by VoiceOver on macOS, Narrator on Windows and Orca on Linux. Every view with the right props becomes a node of that tree, with a role, a label, a state and actions.

info

VoiceOver on macOS is the supported path today. The accessibility tree is also produced on Windows and Linux, but screen reader support there has not been validated yet. See Platform support.

Platform-specific props that work on desktop

Upstream marks these props as iOS-only or Android-only. On desktop they work on every operating system.

Prop	Upstream	Desktop behaviour
accessibilityLabelledBy, aria-labelledby	Android	The label is the text of the view whose nativeID matches.
accessibilityLanguage	iOS	Sets the language the screen reader uses for the label, value and hint.
accessibilityLiveRegion, aria-live	Android	polite and assertive changes are announced; none and off are not.
accessibilityViewIsModal, aria-modal	iOS	Hides the view's siblings from the screen reader and keeps keyboard focus inside the view.
accessibilityElementsHidden, aria-hidden	iOS	Hides the view and its children from the screen reader.
importantForAccessibility	Android	no-hide-descendants hides the view and its children, no hides only the view, yes exposes it.
onAccessibilityEscape	iOS	Called when the Escape key is pressed while focus is inside the view. The nearest ancestor with a handler receives it.
onAccessibilityTap	iOS	Called when the screen reader activates the view.

Accessibility actions

The standard actions map to the operating system's actions:

Action	Desktop
activate	Click
increment, decrement	Increment, decrement (role adjustable)
longpress	Show context menu
expand, collapse	Expand, collapse

Other names become custom actions, listed by the screen reader with their label.

Differences

• experimental_accessibilityOrder is not supported. Focus order follows the view tree.
• onMagicTap is not supported; desktop screen readers have no magic tap gesture.
• accessibilityIgnoresInvertColors, accessibilityShowsLargeContentViewer, accessibilityLargeContentTitle and accessibilityRespondsToUserInteraction have no effect on desktop.
• screenReaderFocusable has no effect: a view is reachable by the screen reader when it is accessible.

To check whether a screen reader is running, see AccessibilityInfo.

Additional resources

• Accessibility on macOS, on Windows and on Linux