iPhone accessibility Voiceover

Question

I’m creating an application which will be used by visually impaired users using voiceover (in built screen reader in iPhone). Certain group of visually impaired persons use external keyboard.

1)Is there any way to Control the reading order of controls in iPhone using xCode? I want a particular control to be read after another. Similar functionality can be achieved via tabIndex property in other programing languages. Is there any similar property available in xCode with which we can control the reading/navigation order of controls?

2)Is it possible to shift focus from one element to another on any event? I tried working with "nextResponder",but it is not working.

3)If a regular user is using iPhone with an external keyboard, it becomes difficult to understand where the current keyboard focus is and thus makes the application difficult to use. Is it possible to provide focus caret (black border around the control which is currently focused?) When Voiceover is ON, a black border is shown around the items which are focused

Answer 1

1) Do you mean: this

2) There is a way to switch focus from one element to another after something changed

UIAccessibilityPostNotification(UIAccessibilityScreenChangedNotification, yourElementOfFocus);

or if it is an layout change

UIAccessibilityPostNotification(UIAccessibilityLayoutChangedNotification, yourElementOfFocus);

3) I don't quite understand your question... If voiceOver is turned on, doesn't it automatically shows a border around the element it is currently focussed on?