Migrate CalendarDatePicker to declarative live regions for accessibility #180131

Franklyn-R-Silva · 2025-12-19T18:11:16Z

Description

This PR migrates the CalendarDatePicker and _MonthPicker widgets from the deprecated SemanticsService.sendAnnouncement to a declarative approach using liveRegion: true.

As specified in #180096 and #177785, SemanticsService.sendAnnouncement is deprecated on Android as of API 36. By using a live region, we ensure that state change announcements (like month navigation and date selection) remain accessible and compliant with modern platform standards.

Changes:

Added _announcementText to _CalendarDatePickerState and _MonthPickerState to track accessibility messages.
Introduced an invisible Semantics widget with liveRegion: true in the build methods to process these announcements.
Updated calendar_date_picker_test.dart to verify the SemanticsFlag.isLiveRegion on the semantics tree instead of capturing imperatice announcements.

Related Issues

Fixes #177785
Relates to #180096

Tests

Updated packages/flutter/test/material/calendar_date_picker_test.dart to verify the new declarative announcement logic.

gemini-code-assist

Code Review

This pull request successfully migrates CalendarDatePicker and _MonthPicker from the deprecated SemanticsService.sendAnnouncement to a declarative approach using Semantics with liveRegion: true. The changes are well-implemented, replacing imperative announcements with state updates that drive a live region for accessibility announcements.

My main feedback is on the test file calendar_date_picker_test.dart. While the test was correctly updated to reflect the new implementation, I found the logic for verifying semantics announcements to be brittle and contain a subtle bug. I've provided a suggestion to refactor the test for improved robustness and readability.

Overall, this is a solid improvement for accessibility compliance.

packages/flutter/test/material/calendar_date_picker_test.dart

hannah-hyj · 2025-12-19T18:47:18Z

Hi @Franklyn-R-Silva,
Thank you for your attention to this a11y issue!
Not sure if you've had a chance to test this on Android yet. from the first glance, you're adding a live region outside of a SizedBox.shrink() and it will result in a zero-size node, which will cause it to be dropped from the semantics tree, and nothing will be announced.
To actually address this issue we need to wrap the semantics live region with a relevant widget and use accessiblityFocusBlockType to make sure focus traversal is still correct after adding the live region and test on an android device. Also we will only remove the a11y announcement for android but keep it on other platform.

…icker - Wrap Semantics live region with SizedBox and Column to avoid zero-size nodes. - Add accessiblityFocusBlockType to ensure correct focus traversal. - Maintain imperative announcements for non-Android platforms in _handleDayChanged and _handleMonthPageChanged.

Franklyn-R-Silva · 2025-12-19T19:44:32Z

Hi @Franklyn-R-Silva, Thank you for your attention to this a11y issue! Not sure if you've had a chance to test this on Android yet. from the first glance, you're adding a live region outside of a SizedBox.shrink() and it will result in a zero-size node, which will cause it to be dropped from the semantics tree, and nothing will be announced. To actually address this issue we need to wrap the semantics live region with a relevant widget and use accessiblityFocusBlockType to make sure focus traversal is still correct after adding the live region and test on an android device. Also we will only remove the a11y announcement for android but keep it on other platform.

Hi @hannah-hyj, thank you for the feedback!

I have updated the code to address the accessibility concerns:

Visibility: I wrapped the Semantics live regions with widgets that have physical dimensions (SizedBox and Column) to ensure they are not dropped from the semantics tree.

Focus Traversal: I added accessiblityFocusBlockType: AccessiblityFocusBlockType.none to maintain correct traversal after adding the live regions.

Platform Parity: I refactored the announcement logic to ensure Android uses the declarative approach while maintaining imperative announcements for other platforms.

Note: I am still working on updating the tests in calendar_date_picker_test.dart to reflect these changes and will push them shortly. I will ping you again once the tests are ready for review.

…egion

Franklyn-R-Silva · 2025-12-19T19:59:17Z

Hi @Franklyn-R-Silva, Thank you for your attention to this a11y issue! Not sure if you've had a chance to test this on Android yet. from the first glance, you're adding a live region outside of a SizedBox.shrink() and it will result in a zero-size node, which will cause it to be dropped from the semantics tree, and nothing will be announced. To actually address this issue we need to wrap the semantics live region with a relevant widget and use accessiblityFocusBlockType to make sure focus traversal is still correct after adding the live region and test on an android device. Also we will only remove the a11y announcement for android but keep it on other platform.

Hi @hannah-hyj,

I’ve updated the PR to address your feedback:

Visibility: Wrapped Semantics in visible containers (SizedBox/Column) to prevent zero-size nodes.

Focus: Added accessiblityFocusBlockType to ensure correct traversal.

Platforms: Refactored logic to use declarative live regions on Android and maintain imperative announcements on other platforms.

Tests: Updated tests using the Android variant to verify the isLiveRegion flag.

Ready for another look!

…egion

hannah-hyj

Hi @Franklyn-R-Silva I just got back from the vacation and I'm taking a look at this PR again!

packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

…egion

Franklyn-R-Silva

review

packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

hannah-hyj · 2026-01-14T00:44:11Z

packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

    return Stack(
      children: <Widget>[
-        SizedBox(height: _subHeaderHeight + scaledMaxDayPickerHeight, child: _buildPicker()),
+        Semantics(


we should only add this Semantics widget here if platform == TargetPlatform.android.

hannah-hyj · 2026-01-14T00:53:07Z

packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

-            '${_localizations.selectedDateLabel} ${widget.calendarDelegate.formatFullDate(_selectedDate!, _localizations)}$semanticLabelSuffix',
-            _textDirection,
-          );
-        case TargetPlatform.android:


It looks like the previous behavior was to use sendAnnouncement only on Linux, macOS, and Windows, but not on Android or iOS. I'm not sure why that was the case. However, since the goal of this PR is to remove the deprecated sendAnnouncement usage on Android, I don't think we need to change anything in this code block (L313–L328).

hannah-hyj · 2026-01-14T00:54:43Z

Hi @Franklyn-R-Silva ! this PR looks good to me over all and i just left a few more comments!

Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

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hannah-hyj · 2026-01-16T22:07:16Z

looks like some tests in calendar_date_picker_test.dart is failing, could you take a look?

Migrate CalendarDatePicker to declarative live regions for accessibility

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Remove CalendarDatepicker usage of Semantic Announcements #177785 #180096

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Remove ExpansionTile usage of Semantic Announcements #177785

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Replace semantic announcements for Android #165510

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Merge branch 'master' into migrate-datepicker-announcements-to-live-r…

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Franklyn-R-Silva added 2 commits December 20, 2025 08:13

Merge branch 'master' into migrate-datepicker-announcements-to-live-r…

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Franklyn-R-Silva and others added 7 commits January 10, 2026 09:08

Update packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

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Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

Update packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

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Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

Update packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

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Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

Update packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

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Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

Update packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

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Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

Update packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

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Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

Merge branch 'master' into migrate-datepicker-announcements-to-live-r…

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Franklyn-R-Silva requested a review from hannah-hyj January 10, 2026 12:15

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Franklyn-R-Silva and others added 2 commits January 14, 2026 08:43

Update packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

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Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

Update packages/flutter/lib/src/material/calendar_date_picker.dart

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Co-authored-by: Hannah Jin <jhy03261997@gmail.com>

Merge branch 'master' into migrate-datepicker-announcements-to-live-r…

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hannah-hyj added the a: accessibility Accessibility, e.g. VoiceOver or TalkBack. (aka a11y) label Jan 16, 2026

Migrate CalendarDatePicker to declarative live regions for accessibility #180131

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Migrate CalendarDatePicker to declarative live regions for accessibility #180131

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Franklyn-R-Silva commented Dec 19, 2025

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