fix(iOS): reset accessibilityViewIsModal on view recycle to avoid trapping VoiceOver

[doracawl]

Summary

RCTViewComponentView applies accessibilityViewIsModal in updateProps only when the prop changes:

// `accessibilityViewIsModal`
if (oldViewProps.accessibilityViewIsModal != newViewProps.accessibilityViewIsModal) {
  self.accessibilityElement.accessibilityViewIsModal = newViewProps.accessibilityViewIsModal;
}

…but prepareForRecycle never resets it. So when a view that had aria-modal / accessibilityViewIsModal is recycled and later reused for a different view that does not set the prop, the diff is NO (recycled default) == NO (new) and updateProps skips it — the stale accessibilityViewIsModal = YES leaks onto the recycled view.

A leftover modal view makes UIKit treat its subtree as the only accessible content, so VoiceOver and UI automation see an empty accessibility tree for the rest of the window until an unrelated layout pass recovers it.

This is easy to hit with transparent modals (e.g. a react-native-screens transparentModal) on iOS: open a modal → close it → reopen it. The recycled content view keeps the stale flag and competes with the modal's own transition view, collapsing the whole window's accessibility tree. It is intermittent because it depends on which pooled view instance is reused.

Changelog:

[iOS] [Fixed] - Reset accessibilityViewIsModal in prepareForRecycle so a stale modal flag no longer leaks onto recycled views and traps VoiceOver

Test Plan

Repro (iOS, Fabric):

1. Render a <View aria-modal> (for example the content of a transparent modal), then unmount it so its underlying RCTViewComponentView returns to the recycle pool.
2. Mount other content that reuses the recycled view without aria-modal.

• Before: the reused view still reports accessibilityViewIsModal == YES; VoiceOver / Accessibility Inspector / a maestro hierarchy dump show a collapsed (near-empty) accessibility tree for the window.
• After: the reused view reports accessibilityViewIsModal == NO; the accessibility tree is intact.

Verified on an iOS 26 simulator with a transparent-modal open → close → reopen cycle: UI-automation flows that read the accessibility tree go from intermittently failing to passing every run.

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[tijuas16]

Trabajo realizado

[javache]

Can we make this more complete and revert the defaults for the other accessibilityElement props too?

[doracawl]

Thanks for the review @javache — pushed c4ab261 to extend prepareForRecycle to clear accessibility state set via accessibilityElement (label / language / hint / value / viewIsModal / elementsHidden / respondsToUserInteraction / identifier), plus a few self-only props (ignoresInvertColors, large content viewer, accessibilityOrder, accessibilityState bits).

Intentionally skipped isAccessibilityElement and accessibilityTraits — for RCTTextComponentView / RCTImageComponentView, accessibilityElement resolves to an inner UILabel / UIImageView whose native defaults (YES / StaticText|Image) would be regressed by a blanket reset to NO / None. Per-subclass reset is a separate follow-up. accessibilityState is cleared via the (.NotEnabled | .Selected) trait bit mask the setter writes on self.accessibilityTraits, which is safe across all subclasses. Full rationale lives in the commit message.

[meta-codesync]

@fabriziocucci has imported this pull request. If you are a Meta employee, you can view this in D109810097.