FB21737006: visible character range returned by the AX Framework and shown in Accessibility Inspector is usually not correct

[godbout]

Submission Date

2026-01-24

Status

Open

Area

Accessibility Framework

Operating System Version

macOS 26.2

Type

Incorrect/Unexpected Behavior

Description

a clear description of the problem

the visible character range shown in the Accessibility Inspector (and therefore returned by the AX Framework) lags behind and usually returns a range starting from 0 when clearly the scrolling is not at the beginning of the text and the beginning of the text is not visible at all.

a step by step set of instructions to reproduce the problem

i'm attaching a video. you can:

1. fill text in TextEdit
2. open the Accessibility Inspector and highlight TextEdit's TextArea
3. check in Accessibility Inspector for the character range
4. scroll down so that the beginning of the text is not visible anymore in Text Edit
5. check again in Accessibility Inspector for the character range, which may still start at 0 when it's clearly not the case as you can see in TextEdit

what results you expected

i expect the character visible range not to start at 0, but to start at the real location of what part of the text is visible.

what results you actually saw

i see the Accessibility Inspector and the AX APIs telling me that the beginning of the text is visible, while it's clearly not the case.

the version of Xcode you are using

Xcode 26.2 17C52

Untitled2.mp4

Keywords

accessibility, swiftui, visiblecharacterrange, scrolling

Prerequisites

• The title follows the format FB<number>: <title>
• I will keep this issue updated with Apple's responses