Change:
'enumItemLabels': languagesSorted.map(key => languages[key].name) }, [AccessibilityVoiceSettingId.AutoSynthesize]: { <del> 'type': 'boolean', </del> <ins> 'type': 'string', 'enum': ['on', 'off', 'auto'], 'enumDescriptions': [ localize('accessibility.voice.autoSynthesize.on', "Enable the feature. When a screen reader is enabled, note that this will disable aria updates."), localize('accessibility.voice.autoSynthesize.off', "Disable the feature."), localize('accessibility.voice.autoSynthesize.auto', "When a screen reader is detected, disable the feature. Otherwise, enable the feature.") ], </ins> 'markdownDescription': localize('autoSynthesize', "Whether a textual response should automatically be read out aloud when speech was used as input. For example in a chat session, a response is automatically synthesized when voice was used as chat request."), <del> 'default': this.productService.quality !== 'stable', // TODO@bpasero decide on a default </del> <ins> 'default': this.productService.quality !== 'stable' ? 'auto' : 'off', // TODO@bpasero decide on a default </ins> 'tags': ['accessibility'] } }

Discussion:
Type: <bFeature Request</bCC setting is ignored when accessibility mode is on. While screen reader's TTS can auto-announce Chat response, some users may want to use this new synthesizer. so, we may want to turn off aria-live when this setting is on. Another consideration is that some low-vision users, who don't necessarily use SR, have turned on the a11y mode and they still want to benefit from this auto-synthesize setting. VS Code version: Code - Insiders 1.91.0-insider (, 2024-06-10T05:48:36.787Z) OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0. Modes: <!-- generated by issue reporter --
Makes sense cc
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would you, yourself, enable this? I worry about turning off regions.
I don’t know whether I would turn this on permanently, but would like to try this out definitely to see if it gives me any new experience. I may be able to manage to listen to two different TTS simultaneously (one for Copilot; SR TTS for my own drive).
That makes sense. It would be great if you could try it out. You can do this now by using the action in the toolbar,
Yes, I have tried this, but this is a manual trigger which does not give me the same experience as the auto-read-aloud.
do you mute NVDA speech and use a braille device when you want to use voice input? or do you use a separate speaker/headphones? When testing this experience, the screen reader's speech is getting recorded by the mic and used as chat input for me unless I mute VoiceOver speech.
That happens when microphone is too sensitive. SR users need to mute their speech synthesizer or they need to use a different sound card or headset.
I use a separate sound card for my screen reader.
what are some verification steps for this issue?

enable screen reader mode, adjust the setting to on, run a chat request, (make sure volume is up), hear the response
I am still unsure what to test and what I should hear. I followed the steps and didn't hear the chat response. I only heard it when talking to chat in the first place.
Sorry - in order to hear the response, I forgot that you have to use voice input to the chat. So pls try that with screen reader mode enabled and that setting on.