Accessibility in Capacitor Apps

The UI is web content inside WKWebView / Android WebView, so standard semantic HTML and ARIA do most of the work. This skill covers where the WebView and native layers behave differently from a browser.

When to Use

TRIGGER when:

• User asks for VoiceOver/TalkBack support, an accessibility audit, WCAG 2.2 / EAA / ADA compliance.
• Text does not grow with iOS Larger Text, or the layout breaks at large Android font sizes.
• Screen reader does not announce page changes, toasts, or loading states.
• A native view (map, camera preview, video player) cannot be reached by the screen reader.
• User wants @capacitor/screen-reader or @capacitor/text-zoom.

Do not use:

• Ionic component APIs/theming -> ionic-design; Konsta/Tailwind -> konsta-ui, tailwind-capacitor.
• Content under notch/home indicator -> safe-area-handling.
• Keyboard covering inputs -> capacitor-keyboard.
• E2E test infrastructure -> capacitor-testing.

Procedure

1. Inventory screens into a TODO list (auth, main tabs, forms, modals, media, settings). Audit one at a time.
2. Automated pass on the web build: run axe (@axe-core/playwright in tests, or npx @axe-core/cli@latest http://localhost:5173) and fix violations first (names, roles, contrast, labels).
3. Device pass per screen with VoiceOver and TalkBack, largest text size, Reduce Motion, and a Bluetooth keyboard (iPad). Use the checks in references/testing.md.
4. Fix Capacitor-specific traps below.
5. Report findings per screen with WCAG criterion, severity, and fix before large refactors; ask before changing design tokens (colors, font sizes).

Capacitor-Specific Traps

1. iOS Dynamic Type is ignored by default. WKWebView renders px/rem text at fixed size regardless of Settings > Accessibility > Larger Text. Options:
   • CSS: html { font: -apple-system-body; } and size everything else in rem/em (WebKit maps this to the user's content size category; updates live).
   • Or TextZoom.getPreferred() then TextZoom.set({ value }) from @capacitor/text-zoom on launch and on resume. On iPad this requires ios.preferredContentMode: 'mobile' in capacitor.config.*. Pick one, not both, or text scales twice.
2. Android font scale applies automatically. Android WebView scales text with the system font size, so fixed-height containers, line-clamp, and absolute layouts overflow at 200%. Test with adb shell settings put system font_scale 2.0 and design for reflow (WCAG 1.4.4, 1.4.10).
3. Pinch zoom. zoomEnabled defaults to false and many templates ship user-scalable=no. Users can still scale text via traps 1/2; if you rely on zoom instead, set zoomEnabled: true and drop user-scalable=no.
4. SPA navigation is silent. Route changes do not trigger a page-load announcement. After navigation set document.title, move focus to the main heading (<h1 tabindex="-1">), or update a polite live region. Do not use ScreenReader.speak as the primary mechanism: it only speaks when a screen reader is active and bypasses the user's verbosity settings.
5. Native views under or over the WebView. @capacitor/google-maps renders a native map behind a transparent WebView region; camera preview plugins do the same. The screen reader sees the WebView, not the native view. Provide an accessible alternative (list of markers, text summary, capture button with label) in HTML.
6. Native plugin UI. Dialogs, action sheets, share sheets, pickers from official plugins are native and accessible by default; custom native screens in your own plugins need accessibilityLabel/contentDescription (see references/native.md).
7. Touch targets. Apple HIG minimum 44x44 pt; Material 48x48 dp; WCAG 2.2 2.5.8 minimum 24x24 CSS px. Icon buttons need padding, not just a small SVG.
8. Motion and contrast. prefers-reduced-motion and prefers-contrast media queries work in both WebViews. Disable parallax/auto-playing transitions under reduce motion; test Increase Contrast.
9. Status changes. Toasts (@capacitor/toast is native and announced), inline errors, spinners: use role="status" / aria-live="polite" for web toasts and aria-busy on loading regions; use role="alert" only for errors.
10. Focus after native round-trips. After a native modal (camera, share, auth browser) closes, focus may land on <body>. Restore focus to the triggering control on appStateChange/promise resolution.

Verification

• axe: zero critical/serious violations on each audited route.
• VoiceOver (iOS) and TalkBack (Android): every control has a spoken name, role, and state; swipe order follows visual order; route change is announced or focus moves to heading.
• Largest text: xcrun simctl ui booted content_size accessibility-extra-extra-extra-large and adb shell settings put system font_scale 2.0; no clipped or overlapping text, no horizontal scroll on body.
• Grep: grep -rnE "user-scalable=no|maximum-scale=1" index.html src/ and grep -rn "outline: *none\|outline: *0" src/ (each must have a :focus-visible replacement).
• Reset after testing: adb shell settings put system font_scale 1.0, xcrun simctl ui booted content_size large.

Error Handling

| Symptom / message | Fix | |---|---| | ScreenReader.isEnabled rejects/unavailable on web | Not supported on web (screen readers cannot be detected); guard with Capacitor.isNativePlatform(). | | speak throws on web | Browser lacks SpeechSynthesis; only call on native or feature-detect 'speechSynthesis' in window. | | "TextZoom" plugin is not implemented on web | text-zoom is native only; skip on web. | | Text zoom has no effect on iPad | Set ios.preferredContentMode: 'mobile'. | | Text scaled twice on iOS | Using both -apple-system-body and TextZoom; keep one. | | VoiceOver reads "button" with no name | Icon-only control missing aria-label or visible text. |

References

Only load when the topic is in play:

• references/testing.md: VoiceOver/TalkBack gestures, Accessibility Inspector, Android Accessibility Scanner, adb/simctl setting commands, axe in Playwright, per-screen checklist.
• references/native.md: Swift/Kotlin accessibility APIs for custom native plugin views, posting announcements from native code.