Modify accessibility focus order

Question

Is it possible to change the accessibility focus order? For example, if I have 3 views side by side, with ids view1, view2, and view3, is there a simple way to make the accessibility focus go to view3 when the user swipes right from view1?

Here is what I've tried:

I have the following in a linear layout.

<ImageView     android:layout_width="30dp"     android:layout_height="30dp"     android:id="@+id/imageView"     android:focusable="true"     android:nextFocusUp="@+id/imageView3"     android:nextFocusDown="@+id/imageView3"     android:nextFocusRight="@+id/imageView3"     android:nextFocusLeft="@+id/imageView3"     android:nextFocusForward="@+id/imageView3"     android:src="@drawable/ic_launcher"/>  <ImageView     android:layout_width="30dp"     android:layout_height="30dp"     android:id="@+id/imageView2"     android:focusable="true"     android:src="@drawable/ic_launcher"/>  <ImageView     android:layout_width="30dp"     android:layout_height="30dp"     android:id="@+id/imageView3"     android:focusable="true"     android:nextFocusUp="@+id/imageView2"     android:nextFocusDown="@+id/imageView2"     android:nextFocusRight="@+id/imageView2"     android:nextFocusLeft="@+id/imageView2"     android:nextFocusForward="@+id/imageView2"     android:src="@drawable/ic_launcher"/> 

Then, I launch this and place accessibility focus on the first imageView. Upon swiping right to move to the next item, I expect it to move accessibility focus to imageView3, but instead it goes to imageView2.

Answer 1

For applications with minSdkVersion >= 22, you may set the traversal order for screen readers direct in the XML with android:accessibilityTraversalAfter:

<ImageView     android:id="@+id/imageView"     android:layout_width="30dp"     android:layout_height="30dp"     android:src="@drawable/ic_launcher" />  <ImageView     android:id="@+id/imageView2"     android:layout_width="30dp"     android:accessibilityTraversalAfter="@id/imageView3"     android:layout_height="30dp"     android:src="@drawable/ic_launcher" />  <ImageView     android:id="@+id/imageView3"     android:layout_width="30dp"     android:layout_height="30dp"     android:src="@drawable/ic_launcher" /> 

For applications supporting lower API levels, the traversal order may be set programmatically with ViewCompat:

ViewCompat.setAccessibilityDelegate(imageView2, object : AccessibilityDelegateCompat() {     override fun onInitializeAccessibilityNodeInfo(host: View?, info: AccessibilityNodeInfoCompat?) {         info?.setTraversalAfter(imageView3)         super.onInitializeAccessibilityNodeInfo(host, info)     } }) 

Please keep in mind that screen reader users rely on the consistency of the navigation, therefore, changing the focus order is an anti-pattern and should be avoided.