`Braille automatic scrolling does not prevent the display from turning off`

[cary-rowen]

Brief summary

When "Prevent display from turning off during say all or reading with braille" is enabled, Windows can still turn the display off while braille automatic scrolling is active.
Manual braille commands pass through input gesture handling, which resets the Windows idle timer. Automatic scrolling is timer-driven and generates no subsequent input gestures, so idle prevention is not maintained after automatic scrolling starts. The problem occurs once automatic scrolling remains active longer than the configured Windows display timeout.

Steps to reproduce

1. Set the Windows display turn-off timeout to 1 minute.
2. Connect a braille display and start NVDA.
3. In NVDA Settings > General, enable "Prevent display from turning off during say all or reading with braille".
4. Open a document containing enough text for automatic scrolling to remain active for more than 1 minute.
5. Press NVDA+Alt+K to enable braille automatic scrolling.
6. Do not provide keyboard or braille input and wait longer than the Windows display timeout.

Actual behavior

Windows turns the display off when its configured timeout expires, even though braille automatic scrolling is still active. No NVDA error is reported.

Expected behavior

The display should remain on for the entire time braille automatic scrolling is active. The normal Windows display timeout should resume after automatic scrolling stops.

NVDA logs, crash dumps and other attachments

No relevant error is written to the NVDA log and no crash dump is generated. This is deterministic Windows execution-state behavior rather than an NVDA error or crash.

NVDA type

installed copy

NVDA version

NVDA 2026.2 and current master

Have you tried any other versions of NVDA? If so, please report their behaviors.

Automatic braille scrolling was introduced in NVDA 2026.2. Earlier versions do not provide this feature.

Windows version

Windows 10 Pro 22H2, build 19045

Name and version of other software in use when reproducing the issue

None

Other information about your system

None

Does the issue still occur after restarting your computer?

I have restarted my computer and the issue still occurs

If NVDA add-ons are disabled, is your problem still occurring?

I have restarted NVDA with add-ons disabled and the issue still occurs

Does the issue still occur after you run the System Accessibility Repair Tool (COM Registration Fixing Tool in older versions) in NVDA's tools menu?

I have run the System Accessibility Repair Tool and the issue still occurs

[cary-rowen]

I created a repair prototype locally, I may do more manual testing