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nonprofittechy merged 3 commits into from
Sep 18, 2025
Merged

Document how to disable screen reader functionality using speak_text variable #561

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Copilot Sep 18, 2025
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Add documentation for speak_text variable to disable screen reader
Copilot Sep 18, 2025
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Update docs/components/AssemblyLine/magic_variables.md
nonprofittechy Sep 18, 2025
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32 changes: 2 additions & 30 deletions docs/components/AssemblyLine/magic_variables.md
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Expand Up @@ -452,44 +452,16 @@ This event is used internally by the language switching functions like

#### `speak_text`

Controls whether the Assembly Line's built-in screen reader functionality is enabled.
Controls whether the screen reader functionality is enabled.
The screen reader feature was added not primarily for blind users, but for people with
low literacy and users on shared workstations or when borrowing mobile devices.

Defaults to `True` (screen reader enabled). Set to `False` to disable the text-to-speech
functionality for the interview.
Currently defaults to `True` (screen reader enabled). Set to `False` in a `mandatory` block to disable the text-to-speech functionality for the interview. This block must be before the `mandatory` block that runs your interview order.

```yaml
code: |
speak_text = False
```

This can be set on a per-interview basis in any mandatory code block or in the
interview order block. For organization-wide control, you can set this variable
in a shared YAML file that all your interviews include.

**Per-interview example:**
```yaml
---
mandatory: True
code: |
speak_text = False
# ... rest of your interview order
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@nonprofittechy nonprofittechy Sep 19, 2025

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@BryceStevenWilley yep, confirming this was my mistake in the PR review

---
```

**Organization-wide example (in a shared file):**
```yaml
---
code: |
speak_text = False
---
```

Note: This setting controls the Assembly Line's screen reader feature. For more information
about Docassemble's built-in text-to-speech functionality, see the
[Docassemble documentation](https://docassemble.org/docs/special.html#speak_text).

## Run-time options

These options are ones that you can sometimes configure when you author the
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