Accessibility: Settings switches lack labels (WCAG 4.1.2) and text resizing fixes

[AnaFerreira015]

Hi! I’m Ana Ferreira, a Master's student in Computer Science.

As part of my research on mobile accessibility, I am analyzing open-source Android applications to help identify and correct accessibility barriers so users can utilize assistive technologies (like TalkBack) more effectively.

I’ve been exploring Local NLP Backend and found a critical usability issue on the Settings Screen, so I wanted to propose a fix.

1. The Issue

On the Settings Screen, the Toggle Switches (e.g., next to "Use Kalman filter", "Use cell tower locations") present the following behavior:

• Current behavior: The switch elements lack a programmatic association with their description text. TalkBack announces them simply as "Switch off/on" without reading the label (violating WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value and 1.1.1 Non-text Content).
• Impact: Blind users cannot determine which setting they are toggling without exploring the surrounding text separately, which is inefficient and confusing.

2. Proposed Solution

To fix this, I suggest adding an android:contentDescription to the Switch that matches the visible text, or using android:labelFor in the text view to associate it with the switch.

Code snippet / XML suggestion:

<Switch
    ...
    android:contentDescription="@string/pref_kalman_filter_title" />

3. Additional fixes (Need your input)

I have identified 3 other accessibility improvements on the Settings screen and its dialogs.

To avoid spamming your notification feed, how would you prefer I submit these?

• Option A: List them all here in this issue (I can update the comment below).
• Option B: Open separate issues for each specific problem.

I can provide detailed fixes for these upon request.

Please let me know your preference, and I will proceed accordingly.

Best regards,

[Helium314]

This is a very niche app, especially since the microG (which this app needs to do anything) dropped support for network location providers almost 3 years ago (#18). Since then, users of Local NLP Backend need to use a very outdated version of microG, which is bad if they want any other functionality than location.
So I want to avoid this app causing any work.

That said, I consider your suggestion of adding a content description basically "no work" (just copy/paste for a bunch of preferences).

Additional fixes (Need your input)

As above, I'd like to avoid putting effort into this app, but if the required changes are simple it's fine.
Let's use option A and have everything in this issue.