Android TalkBack for SeekBar values

Question

So I have a SeekBar in my app and I'm using the TalkBack function of Android. When the SeekBar is scrolled, the device says "(android:contentDescription of view), SeekBar control, 50%". Is it possible to change it so it says the actual value (from -4 to +4), like "SeekBar control, negative 4"?

Answer 1

If you're using a SeekBar, I figure you're tracking the value somewhere. In our case, there is a TextView above the SeekBar that displays the current value derived from the SeekBar's progress.

I've found that setting android:accessibilityLiveRegion="assertive" as an attribute for the TextView works perfectly. It results an an announcement of the updated value (since the TextView is update), followed by the SeekBar's progress.

Note: Setting android:accessibilityLiveRegion to assertive was appropriate for us because it's less time consuming for a user to rapidly change the SeekBar's progress. Setting it to polite announces every increment, while assertive skips unannounced increments to the most recent.

Answer 2

Though not the perfect answer, I found this useful method: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html#announceForAccessibility(java.lang.CharSequence)

Which basically makes the TalkBack function talk during a specific event. I added this in the OnSeekBarChangeListener to make it "talk" every time I change the value of the slider.