is there a way to set the accessibility focus programatically (App Store-safe)? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
To focus on element you can call.
Swift:
UIAccessibility.post(notification: .screenChanged, argument: self.myFirstView)
ObjC:
UIAccessibilityPostNotification(UIAccessibilityScreenChangedNotification, self.myFirstView);
Otherwise for iOS 8+ use the accessibilityElements to set element order and it will focus automatically on first element in the list
self.accessibilityElements = @[myFirstView, mySecondButton, myThirdLabel]