Accessibility: Box-drawing characters are read aloud by VoiceOver, making output very noisy

Problem

Claude Code's terminal UI uses Unicode box-drawing characters (│, ─, ┌, └, ┐, ┘, etc.) for borders around tool outputs, diffs, and other UI elements.

For VoiceOver users on macOS, these characters are read aloud on every single line, making the output extremely noisy and difficult to follow. For example, a simple diff with 20 lines means hearing "vertical line" repeated 40+ times.

Who is affected

Blind and low-vision users who rely on VoiceOver (macOS built-in screen reader) to use Claude Code in the terminal.

Expected behavior

There should be a setting to use a plain text output mode that avoids Unicode box-drawing characters entirely, replacing them with simple ASCII alternatives (like |, -, +) or removing borders altogether.

Alternatively, a outputStyle: "plain" or accessibilityMode: true setting that strips all decorative Unicode characters from the terminal output.

Current workarounds

• Adjusting VoiceOver punctuation level (reduces the problem but also hides useful punctuation)
• prefersReducedMotion: true (only affects animations, not box-drawing characters)
• spinnerTipsEnabled: false (only affects spinner tips)

None of these actually solve the core issue.

Environment

• macOS with VoiceOver enabled
• Claude Code CLI in Terminal.app
• All versions affected

Suggestion

A setting like:

{
  "outputStyle": "plain"
}

That would render all UI elements using only ASCII or no borders at all. This would make Claude Code genuinely accessible to screen reader users.