Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

NVDA allows to change the currently used speech mode by pressing NVDA+s. By default this gesture cycles between 'talk', 'beeps' and 'no speech'. For many users having ability to switch to beeps is unnecessary, and they have no need for modes different than speech and no speech. For other, myself included, while the beep mode is certainly useful, it is much more important to be able to quickly switch between speech and no speech, so beep mode just makes the goal slower to achieve. With the potential introduction of yet another speech mode in #15804, I believe time has come to make this configurable in core.

Describe the solution you'd like

I suggest to add a new checkable list into the speech panel, labeled something like switch between the following speech modes, where all supported speech modes are placed. When switching using NVDA+S the unchecked modes should not be taken into account, this ensures that when any new speech mode is introduced it can be switched to by default.

Describe alternatives you've considered

• There is an add-on by @ABuffEr which, when installed, removes ability to switch to beep mode from NVDA+S. While this solution works, it suffers from all the problems caused by having some small but terribly useful thingy in an add-on, i.e. it has to be updated yearly, it cannot be used in more secure environments where add-ons are disallowed. For the reasons given above I do not consider expanding the add-on to make the list of switchable modes configurable a satisfying solution. Basic stuff such as this really belongs into the core!
• As proposed in Add an "on-demand" speech mode #15804 we can add separate check boxes for disabling beep and speech on demand mode into the speech panel. While this technically works, having a checkable list with ability to enable / disable each and every mode offers much more flexibility. A sample use case being a partially sighted user who has no need for full speech, nor for beeps, so they just switch between speech on demand, and no speech. Note that such configuration is supported by JAWS, although with different shortcuts, so there is definitely a use case here.

Additional context

From the users complaints when .1 releases break compatibility with all of the add-ons, one of the more common ones is the fact that NVDA is the only screen reader where switching between speech and silence is impossible with a single gesture unless add-on is used. I strongly believe integrating small stuff like this into the core improves user experience tremendously, and makes .1 releases less of a pain point. The request not to have beeps when switching speech modes was common enough that the NoBeepsSpeechMode add-on was mentioned in the basic training material for NVDA, which should speak for itself regarding user needs.