macOS Home Assistant Companion App: No Accessibility Features

[misterbond007]

Checklist

• I have updated to the latest available Home Assistant version.
• I have cleared the cache of my browser.
• I have tried a different browser to see if it is related to my browser.
• I have tried reproducing the issue in safe mode to rule out problems with unsupported custom resources.

Describe the issue you are experiencing

Home Assistant does not correctly report the focused UI element using Apple's Accessibility features. When a text field in Home Assistance has keyboard focus, the Accessibility API does not report a UI element with the role “text field” or “text area” as having focus, but rather a generic group. This prevents Accessibility-enabled tools from being able to detect when a user might need assistance typing into a text field.

Specifically, the issue is that, when a text field is focused in Home Assistant, the "AXFocusedUIElement" attribute of the system-wide UI element does not indicate a UI element with the role “AXTextField” or “AXTextArea” is focused.

macOS 15.2, Home Assistant Companion App version 2024.12.2 (2024.1058)

Describe the behavior you expected

When a text field in Home Assistance Companion has keyboard focus, the Accessibility API should report a UI element with the role “text field” or “text area” as having focus.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Install macOS 15.2
2. Install Home Assistant Companion App version 2024.12.2 (2024.1058)
3. On a touch screen set the focus into a text field

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

2025.1.1

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

In which browser are you experiencing the issue?

Home Assistant Companion App version 2024.12.2 (2024.1058)

Which operating system are you using to run this browser?

macOS Sequoia 15.2

State of relevant entities

No response

Problem-relevant frontend configuration

No response

Javascript errors shown in your browser console/inspector

No response

Additional information

No response

[NoRi2909]

I assume you need to file this bug against the iOS Companion app, not the Frontend.

https://github.com/home-assistant/iOS/issues

[misterbond007]

Thank you for the information. Just posted the issue there.

[bgoncal]

@NoRi2909 Since the App only displays a webview with the frontend inside, App can't control what the webview will display, so all the accessibility needs to be implemented in the frontend. I'd recommend reopening this issue.

[misterbond007]

Here the link to the iOS post: home-assistant/iOS#3327

[NoRi2909]

OK, but then you should recreate the issue in a browser and report it as a frontend-wide issue, not just within the app. Otherwise we're kind of stuck in between the two components.

[misterbond007]

Well, but this happens only in the App, not within the Firefox Browser.

[bgoncal]

Please check in Safari as well, since it is what the mac app use to render the frontend

[misterbond007]

I have tested it now in Safari too, without any problems: the accesibilty feature works (the text field is recognized as a text field).

[bgoncal]

Ok, then let's continue this discussion in the iOS repo, feel free to close the issue once again here