[Bug][Accessibility] Desktop app chat panel moves the view on its own even when idle (jumps to the bottom, sometimes up to an earlier message) - unreadable with a screen reader; autoScrollEnabled/axScreenReader have no effect

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

I am a totally blind user; I read the screen with the JAWS screen reader (speech). In the Claude Code DESKTOP APP on Windows - the GUI chat panel, not a terminal (I navigate replies by heading with the JAWS "H" key, so it is an HTML/DOM surface) - the chat conversation panel repeatedly moves the view on its own, including when the app is idle and nothing is being generated. Most often it forces the view, and with it my screen reader's reading cursor, to the BOTTOM of the conversation; at other times it jumps me UPWARD onto an earlier message. Either way I am thrown out of position mid-sentence, which makes it impractical to read any reply longer than a few lines. This is an accessibility barrier, not a cosmetic preference.

Settings that did NOT fix it (set in ~/.claude/settings.json and the app restarted): autoScrollEnabled: false, axScreenReader: true, prefersReducedMotion: true. These appear to govern the terminal/TUI renderer only; they have no effect on the desktop app's chat panel.

What Should Happen?

The reading position stays where I put it. A screen-reader user must be able to read a completed reply from top to bottom without the view moving itself - neither down to the bottom nor up to an earlier message. autoScrollEnabled: false (and/or axScreenReader) should actually apply to the desktop app's chat panel, or there should be some other way to stop that panel moving the view on its own.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. With a screen reader running, open the Claude Code desktop app and view a reply that is longer than one screen.
2. Move through the reply with the screen reader (for example, jump by heading with H).
3. Begin reading.
4. Without any input from me, the panel moves the view - usually scrolling down to the bottom, sometimes jumping up to a previous message - and my reading cursor moves with it. This happens even when no response is being generated.

Claude Model

Not sure / Multiple models

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.187

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

Reported specifically as an accessibility issue. The same behaviour was already reported in #49183 ("autoScrollEnabled should work in desktop app (non-fullscreen mode)") and closed as "not planned" - but that report framed it as a workflow preference and did not raise the disability-access dimension. It also overlaps with #53435 (cannot pause auto-scroll / cannot read earlier output), #33855 (disable auto-scroll in the chat panel), and #15509 (a blind user requesting screen-reader-friendly output).

Impact / workaround: this makes the desktop app effectively unusable for reading non-trivial replies with a screen reader. I had to build my own external workaround - a Stop hook that mirrors each reply into a static local HTML page I read in a browser - just to use the product.

Note: I selected "Other" for Terminal/Shell because this is the desktop application's chat panel, not a terminal.