Accessibility

@carlos3g/element-dropdown ships sensible a11y defaults: every touchable surface is exposed to screen readers, items announce their selection state, the modal traps VoiceOver focus, and the component honours the user's reduce-motion preference. Nothing on this page requires any code change to benefit from — it's all on by default.

Trigger

Both Dropdown and MultiSelect triggers expose:

• accessibilityRole="combobox" — screen readers announce it as a dropdown.
• accessibilityState.expanded — true when the list is open.
• accessibilityState.disabled — true when the disable prop is set.

Set accessibilityLabel on the component to give the trigger a descriptive label, and accessibilityHint for an action description:

<Dropdown
  accessibilityLabel="Country selector"
  accessibilityHint="Opens a list of countries"
  // …
/>

The label is also propagated to the search input (as {label} input) and the list (as {label} flatlist), so tests and assistive tech can address each surface.

List items

Every list row exposes:

• accessibilityRole="button" — TalkBack / VoiceOver announces rows as actionable.
• accessibilityState.selected — true when this item matches the current value.
• accessibilityState.disabled — true when disabledField is set and the item's value at that field is truthy.

By default, the row's accessibilityLabel is item[labelField]. To use a different field, set itemAccessibilityLabelField:

<Dropdown
  data={data}
  labelField="name"
  valueField="id"
  itemAccessibilityLabelField="fullDescription"
  onChange={(item) => setValue(item.id)}
/>

Items are accessible regardless of whether you pass a component-level accessibilityLabel. (Earlier upstream versions silently set accessible={false} when the component label was missing — that gate has been removed.)

Section headers

When you use the sections prop, the default section header carries accessibilityRole="header" so VoiceOver / TalkBack's "next heading" gesture surfaces group titles:

<Dropdown
  sections={[
    { title: 'Berries',  data: [/* … */] },
    { title: 'Citrus',   data: [/* … */] },
  ]}
  // …
/>

If you supply your own renderSectionHeader, set the role yourself.

MultiSelect chips

Each chip in the selection row exposes:

• accessibilityRole="button"
• accessibilityHint="Double tap to remove from selection"

The decorative ⓧ glyph is hidden from the accessibility tree (accessibilityElementsHidden + importantForAccessibility="no-hide-descendants") so screen readers don't read out "circled x" after the label.

The chip-row container is an accessibilityLiveRegion="polite" region — toggling a row announces the new chip without forcing the user to navigate back to the row.

Modal isolation

The dropdown opens inside a React Native <Modal> whose root view sets accessibilityViewIsModal. On iOS, this scopes VoiceOver focus to the modal contents; users can't accidentally swipe back into the screen behind the open list.

Reduce motion

Both components subscribe to the OS-level "Reduce Motion" preference via AccessibilityInfo. When enabled, the modal opens / closes with animationType="none" instead of the default platform animation. The change happens live — toggling the OS setting while a dropdown is open propagates without a remount.

Tap target size

Use hitSlop to expand the trigger's tap area without changing its visual layout. WCAG 2.5.5 recommends at least 44 × 44 pt; if your trigger sits in tight UI, set hitSlop to widen the touch target.

Font scaling

Labels and the search input respect the system font-scale setting by default. Use allowFontScaling to override per-component when you need to lock a fixed size for layout reasons.

Search input

The built-in search input inherits an accessibility label derived from the component's accessibilityLabel ({label} input). To set a more user-friendly label, override via searchInputProps:

<Dropdown
  search
  accessibilityLabel="Country picker"
  searchInputProps={{
    accessibilityLabel: 'Search countries',
    selectionColor: '#007AFF',
  }}
  // …
/>

searchInputProps is also where to set selectionColor, returnKeyType, autoCapitalize, autoFocus, etc. for keyboard / cursor a11y. See Search input passthrough.

Known gaps

• Hardware keyboard navigation (arrow keys, Home/End, Escape, typeahead) is not yet implemented. The component relies on touch. Tracking upstream #228 as a follow-up; needs an active-descendant focus model that doesn't exist yet in the codebase.
• Programmatic focus management — opening the dropdown does not auto-focus the search input, and closing does not return focus to the trigger. Adding this without device-level testing would risk regressions on Android, so it's deferred until we have a Fabric / web harness.

If you hit an accessibility bug or gap not listed here, open an issue at carlos3g/element-dropdown.