Announce switch checked state on list row focus for screen readers

[MelvinBot]

Explanation of Change

When a list row contains a Switch as its rightElement, screen readers (like VoiceOver on macOS) only announced the row's text content (e.g., "Default Rate, $0.67 / mile") but NOT the switch's on/off state. This affected all 6 workspace pages that use Switch in list items (Distance Rates, Categories, Tags, Taxes, etc.).

This is a generic fix in BaseListItem.tsx. In the getAccessibilityProps function, we now detect if the rightElement is a Switch (by checking for its isOn prop) and include its checked state in the row's accessibilityState. This causes the screen reader to announce the switch state when the row is focused, without requiring any per-page changes.

Fixed Issues

$ #82498

Tests

1. Enable VoiceOver on macOS (Cmd+F5)
2. Open a workspace and navigate to Distance Rates
3. Use VoiceOver to navigate to a rate row
4. Verify the row announces the switch's checked state (on/off)
5. Toggle the switch and verify the announcement updates
6. Repeat on Categories, Tags, and Taxes pages to confirm the generic fix works across all pages

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

N/A — This is an accessibility announcement change with no network dependency.

QA Steps

1. Enable VoiceOver (macOS) or TalkBack (Android)
2. Navigate to Workspaces > Distance Rates
3. Focus on a rate row using the screen reader
4. Verify the switch state (on/off or checked/not checked) is announced along with the rate details
5. Verify the same behavior on Categories, Tags, and Taxes pages

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

• I linked the correct issue in the ### Fixed Issues section above
• I wrote clear testing steps that cover the changes made in this PR
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• I included screenshots or videos for tests on all platforms
• I ran the tests on all platforms & verified they passed on:
  • Android: Native
  • Android: mWeb Chrome
  • iOS: Native
  • iOS: mWeb Safari
  • MacOS: Chrome / Safari
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Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: Native

iOS: mWeb Safari

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

[rushatgabhane]

@MelvinBot it should work for other pages too. also clean the code. create props if needed etc

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Looks like you've decreased code coverage for some files. Please write tests to increase, or at least maintain, the existing level of code coverage. See our documentation here for how to interpret this table.

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
...s/workspace/categories/WorkspaceCategoriesPage.tsx	59.70% <ø> (ø)
...orkspace/distanceRates/PolicyDistanceRatesPage.tsx	0.00% <ø> (ø)
...s/workspace/reports/ReportFieldsListValuesPage.tsx	0.00% <ø> (ø)
src/pages/workspace/taxes/WorkspaceTaxesPage.tsx	0.00% <ø> (ø)
...components/SelectionList/ListItem/BaseListItem.tsx	96.77% <90.00%> (-1.41%)	⬇️
src/pages/workspace/tags/WorkspaceTagsPage.tsx	47.15% <0.00%> (-0.14%)	⬇️
src/pages/workspace/tags/WorkspaceViewTagsPage.tsx	0.00% <0.00%> (ø)
... and 78 files with indirect coverage changes

[MelvinBot]

Addressed the feedback — here's what changed:

Cleaned up the approach: Replaced the fragile React.isValidElement + prop type-casting with an explicit isToggleActive prop on the ListItem type. This is type-safe and doesn't depend on the React element tree structure.

Now works for all pages, including wide layout where the Switch is nested inside a Fragment (Categories, Tags):

Page	Status
WorkspaceTaxesPage	✅
PolicyDistanceRatesPage	✅
ReportFieldsListValuesPage	✅
WorkspaceViewTagsPage	✅
WorkspaceCategoriesPage	✅ (was broken in wide layout)
WorkspaceTagsPage	✅ (was broken in wide layout for single-level tags)

What changed:

• Added isToggleActive?: boolean to ListItem type in types.ts
• BaseListItem.tsx now reads item.isToggleActive directly instead of inspecting rightElement props
• All 6 pages that render a Switch in list items now pass isToggleActive alongside their rightElement

[rushatgabhane]

@MelvinBot use web agent and test the PR verify from DOM please

[MelvinBot]

🧪 Browser DOM Verification

Tested the PR on web using browser automation. Verified that aria-checked is correctly set on list row elements across all pages with switches.

Distance Rates

• Row BUTTON[role="button"][aria-checked="true"][aria-label="Default Rate, $0.725 / mile"] — the outer row element has aria-checked matching the switch state ✅

Categories

• All 19 category rows have BUTTON[role="button"][aria-checked="true"] since all toggles are enabled ✅

Taxes

• Both Tax exempt and Tax Rate 1 rows have aria-checked="true" when enabled ✅
• After toggling Tax Rate 1 off: aria-checked dynamically updates to "false" ✅

Summary

The isToggleActive prop correctly propagates to accessibilityState.checked on the row's pressable element, which renders as aria-checked in the DOM. Screen readers will announce the toggle state when focusing the row. Dynamic toggling also works — aria-checked updates immediately when the switch is toggled.

[rushatgabhane]

@MelvinBot review

[MelvinBot]

Code Review

The refactored approach using an explicit isToggleActive prop is clean and correct. Here's a summary:

What looks good:

• The isToggleActive prop on ListItem is a proper typed API — much better than the previous React.isValidElement + type-casting approach
• All 6 pages correctly pass isToggleActive matching their Switch's isOn value
• The hasDependentTags ? undefined : ... pattern in WorkspaceTagsPage/WorkspaceViewTagsPage correctly avoids setting checked when there's no Switch (only a caret)
• The conditional spread ...(item.isToggleActive != null && {checked: item.isToggleActive}) ensures checked is only added when explicitly provided

One thing to note (not blocking):

When isToggleActive is set, accessibilityState.checked (aria-checked) is applied to rows that may have role="option" (set at line 53 when isSelectableOption is true). Per the ARIA spec, aria-checked isn't a supported state for role="option" — it's supported for switch, checkbox, and radio. In practice, screen readers still read it, so this works functionally. If you want to be spec-compliant, the row's role could be set to CONST.ROLE.SWITCH when isToggleActive is provided. But that may conflict with the listbox/option pattern, so it's fine to leave as-is and revisit if screen reader behavior issues are reported.

Housekeeping:

The PR description still references the old approach ("detect if the rightElement is a Switch by checking for its isOn prop"). It should be updated to reflect the current isToggleActive prop approach.

[rushatgabhane]

[aria-checked="true"] @MelvinBot isn't that the checkbox and not the toggle switch?

[MelvinBot]

Good catch — you're right. aria-checked on role="option" makes screen readers say "checked/not checked" (checkbox semantics), not "on/off" (switch semantics).

Fixed: The row now uses role="switch" when isToggleActive is set. With role="switch" + aria-checked, screen readers correctly announce "on"/"off" instead of "checked"/"not checked".

The Switch component itself (src/components/Switch.tsx:104) already uses role={CONST.ROLE.SWITCH}, but since BaseListItem groups children into a single accessible element, the nested Switch's role was lost — only the parent row's role was announced. Now the parent row matches.

[rushatgabhane]

The Switch component itself (src/components/Switch.tsx:104) already uses role={CONST.ROLE.SWITCH}, but since BaseListItem groups children into a single accessible element, the nested Switch's role was lost — only the parent row's role was announced. Now the parent row matches.

@MelvinBot is the root cause fixed then?

[MelvinBot]

Yes, the root cause is fixed. Here's the full picture:

Root cause: BaseListItem wraps the entire row in a PressableWithFeedback with accessible={true} (the default). This collapses all children — including the Switch — into a single accessible element owned by the parent row. The nested Switch's role="switch" and aria-checked (set at Switch.tsx:104-105) are invisible to screen readers because only the parent row's accessibility properties are announced.

What the fix does (in BaseListItem.tsx:34-55):

1. When item.isToggleActive is set, the parent row gets role="switch" (line 55) — matching what the nested Switch would have announced on its own
2. The parent row's accessibilityState.checked is set to item.isToggleActive (line 37) — so screen readers announce "on"/"off"
3. All 6 pages with Switch in list items now pass isToggleActive, including Categories and Tags in wide layout where the Switch is nested inside a Fragment

The screen reader now announces both the row's text content AND the switch state when focusing the row.

[MelvinBot]

Fixed the failing ESLint check: replaced a nested ternary expression with an if-else block in BaseListItem.tsx to satisfy the no-nested-ternary rule.

[rushatgabhane]

hmm but a list item can have both toggle and switch @MelvinBot

[MelvinBot]

Good catch — fixed. When canSelectMultiple is true, rows have role=checkbox with checked reflecting selection state (isSelected). The toggle's role=switch override now guards against this:

if (hasToggle && !isCheckboxOrRadio) {
    effectiveRole = CONST.ROLE.SWITCH;
}

So in multi-select mode, the checkbox role and selection state take priority. The isToggleActive value is only used for accessibilityState.checked when the role is NOT checkbox/radio (this was already correct in the accessibilityState logic).