Accessibility¶

Android's Accessibility service is the most powerful — and most dangerous — API on the phone. strands-adb exposes a safe subset.

List Services¶

adb(action="accessibility_list")
# → enabled services + all installable services

Toggle a Service¶

adb(action="accessibility_toggle_service",
    service="com.google.android.accessibility.talkback/.TalkBackService",
    enabled=True)

Needs permission

Toggling services requires WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS:

adb shell pm grant <pkg> android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

System Actions¶

Trigger system-wide accessibility actions:

adb(action="accessibility_system_action", id="home")
adb(action="accessibility_system_action", id="back")
adb(action="accessibility_system_action", id="notifications")
adb(action="accessibility_system_action", id="quick_settings")

Live Captions¶

adb(action="accessibility_captions", enabled=True)

Screen Magnification¶

adb(action="accessibility_magnification", enabled=True, scale=2.0)

Font Scale¶

adb(action="accessibility_font_scale", scale=1.3)   # 130% text size

Valid scales: 0.85, 1.0, 1.15, 1.3, 1.45, 1.6, 1.75, 2.0.

Status¶

Overall accessibility state:

adb(action="accessibility_status")
# → {
#     "enabled_services": [...],
#     "touch_exploration": False,
#     "high_contrast": False,
#     "color_correction": "disabled",
#     "font_scale": 1.0,
#     "magnification_enabled": False,
#   }

Agent Recipes¶

"Accessibility mode"¶

agent("""
enable TalkBack, live captions, and bump font to 1.3x.
My grandma is using the phone today.
""")

"Back off the magnifier"¶

agent("disable magnification and reset font to 1.0")

Richer Screen Reading — Companion APK¶

For true accessibility-tree reading (much richer than UIAutomator), you'd need a companion APK that registers as an AccessibilityService. This is tracked in FRONTIERS.md #2. ADB alone can toggle services but can't read their output without a helper app.

What's Next¶

Smart Tap — alternative to a11y for interaction
Settings — related a11y settings
Safety — why a11y is powerful and dangerous