Rules

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Learn more about the accessibility rules supported within axe DevTools for iOS. Below you'll find brief descriptions of each rule along with the link to the original guidelines. Rules come from three sources:

WCAG Success Criterion
Platform Guideline - defined by Apple
Best Practice - defined by Accessibility Experts at Deque

In the navigation bar under Rules & Remediation, you'll find detailed information on each rule, including resolution tips. View this guide for impact rating and descriptions. Some rules will be marked with an experimental badge. Learn more about experimental rules and how you can help improve them.

tip

Throughout our rules documentation, you'll find references to Name, Role, and Value. Please refer to WCAG's definitions.

Rule Overview

important

Colliding Views and Color Contrast rules use a trained computer vision algorithm. These types of rules will only show results from views rendered on the screen at the time of the scan.

Are you using the UIKit framework? Some rules, highlighted in the table below, require Accessibility Inspector or an Assistive Technology (VoiceOver, Switch Control, etc.) to detect issues properly. Learn how to load the accessibility layer here.

	Rule & Description	Guidelines	Impact	Requires Accessibility Layer
Accessibility Element Focus Box	A11y Element Focus Box Every VoiceOver element that is focusable should be within the VoiceOver focus box.	Best Practice	Moderate	✓
Active Control Name	Active Control Name Active controls such as buttons, switches, and more, require text made available to VoiceOver.	WCAG 2.0 - 4.1.2 A	Critical	✓
Associated Text	Associated Text A control should get its name from a nearby label.	WCAG 2.0 - 1.3.1 A	Critical or Serious
Colliding Controls	Colliding Controls Active controls should not have intersecting bounds.	Platform Guideline	Moderate
Colliding Views	Colliding Views Informative views should not overlap with another view.	Platform Guideline	Minor
Color Contrast	Color Contrast Text elements should adequately contrast with their background.	WCAG 2.0 - 1.4.3 AA	Serious
Conflicting Traits	Conflicting Traits Elements should not have conflicting accessibility traits.	Platform Guideline	Critical	✓
Focusable Text	Focusable Text Text elements should be focusable with VoiceOver.	WCAG 2.0 - 1.3.2 A	Critical	✓
ImageView Name	ImageView Name Images that provide information should have a name.	WCAG 2.0 - 1.1.1 A	Critical	✓
In ScrollView	In ScrollView Visible text should be within a scrollable view.	WCAG 2.0 - 1.4.4 AA	Serious
Inaccessible Action	Inaccessible Action An element that is an active control or contains an active control must have an action that can be activated using Assistive Technology.	WCAG 2.0 - 2.1.1 A	Critical
Label At Front	Label At Front Any active controls with visible text should have a name beginning with that text.	WCAG 2.1 - 2.5.3 Best Practice	Minor
Label In Name	Label In Name Any active controls with visible text should have that exact text within its name.	WCAG 2.1 - 2.5.3 A	Serious
Meaningful Accessible Name	Meaningful Accessible Name An element's accessible name should not include its accessibility trait.	Platform Guideline	Minor
Nested Active Controls	Nested Active Controls Multiple active controls should not be nested within an accessibility element.	WCAG 2.0 - 2.1.1 A	Critical	✓
Nested Elements Name	Nested Elements Name Text within an accessibility element should be read by VoiceOver.	WCAG 2.0 - 1.3.2 A	Critical
Screen Orientation	Screen Orientation Applications should support portrait and landscape orientations.	WCAG 2.1 - 1.3.4 AA	Serious
Screen Title	Screen Title Each screen in an application should have a title.	WCAG 2.0 - 2.4.2 A	Moderate
Supports Dynamic Type	Supports Dynamic Type Visible text should support resizing based on device settings.	Platform Guideline	Critical
Touch Target Size	Touch Target Size All active controls should be a minimum of 44pt by 44pt.	WCAG 2.1 - 2.5.5 AAA	Moderate
Touch Target Spacing	Touch Target Spacing All active controls should have a minimum of 24pt by 24pt tappable area.	WCAG 2.2 - 2.5.8 AA	Moderate

axeDevToolsXCUI and SwiftUI Support

SwiftUI is supported only in axeDevToolsXCUI. The below rules cannot be violated within SwiftUI views and will not run:

A11yElementFocusBox

Support for the following rules in axeDevToolsXCUI is under research/development:

Inaccessible Action
Nested Active Controls
Supports Dynamic Type

Rules

Rule Overview

axeDevToolsXCUI and SwiftUI Support

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