[A11y] Add lang attribute to language options for screen reader pronunciation by MelvinBot · Pull Request #84588 · Expensify/App

MelvinBot · 2026-03-09T12:49:49Z

Explanation of Change

Non-English language options on the Language preferences page (Settings > Preferences > Language) were being announced with English pronunciation by screen readers (e.g., JAWS + Chrome) because the HTML elements lacked the lang attribute. Per WCAG 3.1.1, the lang attribute tells screen readers which language to use for pronunciation, so without it, text like "中文 (简体)" or "日本語" was either mispronounced or skipped entirely.

This PR adds a lang property to the ListItem type, threads it through BaseListItem to the pressable DOM element, and sets it on each language option in LanguagePage using the locale code as the BCP 47 language tag. On web, React Native Web forwards the lang prop to the HTML lang attribute on the rendered <div>. On native platforms, the prop is harmlessly ignored.

Fixed Issues

$ #74881

Tests

Enable a screen reader (JAWS on Windows, VoiceOver on Mac)
Open the app and navigate to Settings > Preferences > Language
Tab through the language options
Verify each language option is announced using the correct pronunciation for that language (e.g., "Deutsch" with German pronunciation, "日本語" with Japanese pronunciation)
Verify the language selection still works correctly when clicking/pressing Enter on an option

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

N/A — These are accessibility attribute changes that don't affect offline behavior.

QA Steps

Enable a screen reader (JAWS on Windows, VoiceOver on Mac)
Navigate to Settings > Preferences > Language
Tab through the language options
Verify each language option is announced using the correct pronunciation for that language
Verify selecting a language still changes the app locale correctly

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Web: Language Preferences Page with lang attributes

DOM verification showing each language option now has the correct lang attribute:

English → lang="en"
Deutsch → lang="de"
Español → lang="es"
Français → lang="fr"
Italiano → lang="it"
Nederlands → lang="nl"
Polski → lang="pl"
Português (BR) → lang="pt-BR"
中文 (简体) → lang="zh-hans"
日本語 → lang="ja"

… pronunciation Non-English language options on the Language preferences page were being announced with English pronunciation by screen readers (JAWS + Chrome) because the HTML elements lacked the lang attribute. This adds a lang property to ListItem, threads it through BaseListItem to the pressable element, and sets it on each language option in LanguagePage using the locale code as the BCP 47 language tag. Co-authored-by: Rushat Gabhane <rushatgabhane@users.noreply.github.com>

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-09T12:51:09Z

@MelvinBot will this work on react native? https://reactnative.dev/docs/accessibility

suggest a fix that works on native too

MelvinBot · 2026-03-09T12:53:26Z

Good catch — the lang prop only works on web (React Native Web forwards it to the HTML lang attribute). On native platforms, it's silently ignored by React Native's Pressable.

For iOS, React Native supports accessibilityLanguage — it accepts a BCP 47 language tag (same format as lang) and tells VoiceOver which language to use when reading the element. It's iOS-only; Android's TalkBack doesn't have a documented equivalent prop.

Suggested fix — in BaseListItem.tsx, pass both props so web and iOS are both covered:

lang={item.lang}
accessibilityLanguage={item.lang}

The prop forwarding chain (PressableWithFeedback → GenericPressable → RN Pressable) already spreads ...rest through, so accessibilityLanguage will reach the native Pressable without any plumbing changes. The lang field in the ListItem type can stay as-is since it's already a BCP 47 tag, which is exactly what accessibilityLanguage expects.

Platform coverage after this change:

Web: ✅ lang → HTML lang attribute (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver)
iOS: ✅ accessibilityLanguage → VoiceOver language hint
Android: ❌ No equivalent prop in React Native — TalkBack relies on system-level language detection. This is a React Native limitation, not something this PR can fix.

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-09T13:11:10Z

@MelvinBot see what react native web needs? Also is our value passed to the prop correct?

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-09T13:11:21Z

@MelvinBot mark ready for review

MelvinBot · 2026-03-09T13:13:27Z

Investigated both questions:

1. What does React Native Web need?

RNW explicitly supports the lang prop — it's whitelisted in the forwardPropsList for View (source):

const forwardPropsList = {
  // ...
  lang: true,
  // ...
};

It does two things with it:

Forwards it to the DOM as the HTML lang attribute (via the pickProps filter)
Uses it internally to determine text direction — getLocaleDirection(props.lang) sets the dir attribute (RTL vs LTR) and feeds it into the LocaleProvider context

So the current approach of passing lang to PressableWithFeedback works correctly on web. The prop flows through PressableWithFeedback → GenericPressable → RN Pressable → RNW's View → DOM element.

2. Are the values correct?

The values come from CONST.LOCALES in src/CONST/LOCALES.ts. The full set is:

Locale	BCP 47 valid?
`en`	✅
`es`	✅
`de`	✅
`fr`	✅
`it`	✅
`ja`	✅
`nl`	✅
`pl`	✅
`pt-BR`	✅
`zh-hans`	✅ (technically canonical form is `zh-Hans`, but BCP 47 tags are case-insensitive and browsers/screen readers handle both)

All values are valid BCP 47 language tags. Screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver on macOS) will correctly switch pronunciation based on these tags.

One note on native platforms (from my earlier comment): on iOS, this prop has no effect — iOS needs accessibilityLanguage instead. Adding accessibilityLanguage={item.lang} alongside lang={item.lang} in BaseListItem.tsx would cover iOS VoiceOver as well.

MelvinBot · 2026-03-09T13:14:56Z

Done — PR is now marked as ready for review.

melvin-bot · 2026-03-09T13:14:58Z

@ahmedGaber93 Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-09T13:17:03Z

@ahmedGaber93 all yours

joekaufmanexpensify · 2026-03-09T18:43:35Z

No product review needed

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-12T15:29:44Z

reassigning to @mkhutornyi

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-13T02:28:55Z

@mkhutornyi feel free to change this please, if something isn't working

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-13T02:29:20Z

@MelvinBot please fix native too if not done

The lang prop only works on web (React Native Web forwards it as the HTML lang attribute). On native iOS, VoiceOver uses the accessibilityLanguage prop to determine pronunciation language. This passes the same BCP 47 locale tag to accessibilityLanguage so iOS VoiceOver announces language options correctly. Co-authored-by: Rushat Gabhane <rushatgabhane@users.noreply.github.com>

melvin-bot · 2026-03-13T02:39:51Z

@thesahindia @dangrous One of you needs to copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

MelvinBot · 2026-03-13T02:39:55Z

Added accessibilityLanguage={item.lang} to BaseListItem alongside the existing lang prop.

lang → works on web (React Native Web forwards it as the HTML lang attribute)
accessibilityLanguage → works on iOS (tells VoiceOver which language to use for pronunciation)
Android → TalkBack doesn't have an equivalent React Native prop; it relies on automatic language detection

Both props receive the same BCP 47 locale tag (e.g., "de", "ja", "zh-hans"), so no additional data changes were needed.

MelvinBot · 2026-03-13T02:54:19Z

The failing check is unrelated to this PR.

Analysis: The failure is in tests/ui/components/IOURequestStepConfirmationPageTest.tsx with TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'GRANTED') at __mocks__/react-native-permissions.ts:11. This is a module-level initialization error in the react-native-permissions mock where RESULTS imported from react-native-permissions/dist/commonjs/permissions is undefined.

Evidence:

This PR only modifies 3 files: BaseListItem.tsx, ListItem/types.ts, and LanguagePage.tsx — all related to adding a lang attribute for screen reader accessibility
Both the mock file and the failing test file are identical to what's on main (git diff main shows no changes for either)
The same Jest test workflow passes on main (most recent run: 22883635643)
This is a flaky/intermittent test failure caused by a transient module resolution issue in CI

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-13T03:46:35Z

@MelvinBot merge main

…eScreenReaderLang Co-authored-by: Rushat Gabhane <rushatgabhane@users.noreply.github.com>

MelvinBot · 2026-03-13T03:55:03Z

Merged main into the PR branch.

mkhutornyi · 2026-03-13T12:02:55Z

Reviewer Checklist

I have verified the author checklist is complete (all boxes are checked off).
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- I verified the steps for local testing are in the Tests section
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- I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
I checked that screenshots or videos are included for tests on all platforms
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I verified that the composer does not automatically focus or open the keyboard on mobile unless explicitly intended. This includes checking that returning the app from the background does not unexpectedly open the keyboard.
I verified tests pass on all platforms & I tested again on:
- Android: HybridApp
- Android: mWeb Chrome
- iOS: HybridApp
- iOS: mWeb Safari
- MacOS: Chrome / Safari
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- I verified that any new or modified comments were clear, correct English, and explained "why" the code was doing something instead of only explaining "what" the code was doing.
- I verified any copy / text shown in the product is localized by adding it to src/languages/* files and using the translation method
- I verified all numbers, amounts, dates and phone numbers shown in the product are using the localization methods
- I verified any copy / text that was added to the app is grammatically correct in English. It adheres to proper capitalization guidelines (note: only the first word of header/labels should be capitalized), and is either coming verbatim from figma or has been approved by marketing (in order to get marketing approval, ask the Bug Zero team member to add the Waiting for copy label to the issue)
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Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

Android: mWeb Chrome

iOS: HybridApp

iOS: mWeb Safari

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

dangrous

Codewise seems great if it works!

mkhutornyi · 2026-03-13T16:03:45Z

There's regression on staging so web testing is blocked at the moment. Works fine on production

Not able to select each menu item at all. I tested using VoiceOver.

staging:

reg.mov

production:

@rushatgabhane should we create new issue for this? I can investigate if you'd assign me.

mkhutornyi · 2026-03-13T16:08:43Z

src/components/SelectionList/ListItem/BaseListItem.tsx

                {...bind}
                ref={pressableRef}
+                lang={item.lang}
+                accessibilityLanguage={item.lang}


@MelvinBot accessibilityLanguage is iOS only prop. https://reactnative.dev/docs/view#accessibilitylanguage-ios
Does this work on android too?

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-13T16:16:53Z

@mkhutornyi this bug doesn't occur on Android btw, try it out

And for web regression on staging I don't think we need to wait on it if DOM element looks good

MelvinBot · 2026-03-13T16:17:35Z

No — accessibilityLanguage does not work on Android. It is iOS-only, as you noted.

Current cross-platform coverage

Platform	Mechanism	Status
Web	`lang` prop → HTML `lang` attribute	✅ Works
iOS	`accessibilityLanguage` → VoiceOver language	✅ Works
Android	—	❌ No React Native support

Why Android doesn't work

React Native has no wiring for accessibilityLanguage on Android:

BaseViewConfig.android.js omits it from the valid attributes list (while BaseViewConfig.ios.js includes it)
Zero Java/Kotlin code in ReactAndroid/ references the prop
React Native's own ReactAccessibilityDelegate.java:371 has an explicit // TODO: Eventually support for other languages on talkback

The prop is silently ignored on Android — no crash, no error, just no effect.

What Android offers (outside RN)

LocaleSpan — wraps text with a locale hint for TalkBack, but only works on SpannableString text, not arbitrary View accessibility labels. React Native doesn't support this.
View.setLocaleList() — API 34+ (Android 14+) per-view locale API. React Native doesn't call it. A custom native module could bridge it, but only for newer devices.
Automatic language detection — TalkBack on Android 13+ can auto-detect and switch languages mid-text. Imperfect but requires zero code changes.

Recommendation

The current approach (lang for web + accessibilityLanguage for iOS) is the best we can do within React Native's current APIs. For Android, TalkBack's automatic language detection on Android 13+ partially compensates. A full Android solution would require either an upstream React Native change or a custom native module — both out of scope for this PR.

If you'd like, I can file an upstream issue on facebook/react-native to track Android support, or we can accept the gap for now.

mkhutornyi · 2026-03-13T16:48:26Z

@mkhutornyi this bug doesn't occur on Android btw, try it out

And for web regression on staging I don't think we need to wait on it if DOM element looks good

DOM element looks good. Btw the original bug report is from web platform.

iOS works fine.

For android, I am not sure if there's solution to support all devices. Should we not block on this?
And as Melvin said, not supported in RN android.
In my old phone (android 12, Samsung Galaxy S10+), TalkBack doesn't support Chinese and Japanese.

mkhutornyi

#84588 (comment)

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-16T14:09:33Z

@dangrous all yours! 🙇

rushatgabhane · 2026-03-16T14:10:16Z

For android, I am not sure if there's solution to support all devices

yep it works on modern android versions. so i don't think we should block on this.

github-actions · 2026-03-16T21:03:36Z

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github-actions · 2026-03-16T21:08:22Z

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OSBotify · 2026-03-17T11:55:35Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/dangrous in version: 9.3.39-0 🚀

platform	result
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🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

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🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

MelvinBot assigned rushatgabhane Mar 9, 2026

MelvinBot requested a review from a team March 9, 2026 12:49

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[Due for payment 2026-01-30] Screen Reader: Settings - Preferences: Non-English options announced incorrectly or not announced #74881

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Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into claude-fixLanguagePag…

44a81fa

…eScreenReaderLang Co-authored-by: Rushat Gabhane <rushatgabhane@users.noreply.github.com>

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MelvinBot commented Mar 9, 2026

Explanation of Change

Fixed Issues

Tests

Offline tests

QA Steps

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

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rushatgabhane commented Mar 9, 2026

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MelvinBot commented Mar 9, 2026

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rushatgabhane commented Mar 9, 2026

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MelvinBot commented Mar 9, 2026

1. What does React Native Web need?

2. Are the values correct?

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MelvinBot commented Mar 13, 2026

Current cross-platform coverage

Why Android doesn't work

What Android offers (outside RN)

Recommendation

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