AppBarLayout traps keyboard focus

Question

I'm trying to ensure that keyboard navigation works properly on my app and all view elements are focusable when users hit the 'Tab' key or 'Up/Down' arrow keys. However, the AppBarLayout seems to trap keyboard focus. I'm running my app on an emulator with a keyboard configured. A sample layout is as below:

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
        android:id="@+id/search_fragment_app_bar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="#FFFFFF"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:scrollbars="horizontal"
        android:focusable="true"
        android:nextFocusDown="@id/recycler_view">

        <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:orientation="horizontal">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:padding="8dp"
                android:text="Sample text 1"
                android:focusable="true"/>

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:padding="8dp"
                android:text="Sample text 2"
                android:focusable="true"/>
        </LinearLayout>

    </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:focusable="true"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@layout/content_main"
        android:id="@+id/recycler_view"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Hitting the Tab key or the Up/Down arrows does not switch the focus over to the recycler view and the focus is stuck within the AppBarLayout. Setting the nextFocusDown attribute on the textviews and setting the view elements to remain focusable does not work either. Here is the image. What do I need to do to make this layout accessible?

Answer 1

I think you need to call

    findViewById(R.id.search_fragment_app_bar).setTouchscreenBlocksFocus(false);
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        findViewById(R.id.search_fragment_app_bar).setKeyboardNavigationCluster(false);
    }

setTouchscreenBlocksFocus

setKeyboardNavigationCluster