Everything speaks when I get a notification, is there a fix?

Thank you all for responding! I configured my Quick Settings and turned off speaking of notifications as was suggested. When I get one now, the screen comes on and it speaks the time. My phone apparently tries to unlock because it tells me: "try again" two or three times. This happens unless the phone is screen down. I have the "always on display" mode, "nightstand" mode, and "raise to wake" mode all turned off. When my screen is locked, I just want the darn thing to stay off unless I hit the side button. ,Is this doable?

I read the suggestion to mute speech, that's a good idea. I also read the suggesti'on to turn off banners and such so I only get the tones. The only thing is that when I'm using the phone, I want it to read notifications as they come in.

As it stands, I have two working parts to the solution, so it’s ok. Hopefully you can help me make it perfecto.
Any ideas?

Thanks again.

Hi, @TheBllindGuy07!

I hate that too. It seems whenever the screen turns on, VO just loves to make my notifications known to everyone in earshot, and if an alarm is going, to the neighbors two blocks away! My notifications are not embarrassing, but VO shouting in the middle of a meeting sure is! Not that I set many alarms while in meetings, but you get the idea. This happens despite the many helpful suggestions here. Many of them should have worked, maybe there are bugs bugging IOS and iPadOS. I don't know. For your needs, it might be enough to enable a focus, like Sleep or Do Not Disterbe, and set it to come on every night at bed time. You could either set it to turn itself off a few minutes after wakeup time, or just turn it off manually after you've forced yourself out of bed. If you find anything helpful that’s not in this convo/thread, please share it. I'll do the same. There are a lot of VIPs here, I'm sure someone has found a solution to these problems.

Whether or not we find a solution, I appreciate all of the responses and participation.

Hi there.
Do Not Disterbe, which I'll call DND here, would eliminate the problem of VO speaking too much, but it has serious drawbacks.
First, with DND on, I would have no way to know when I'm getting a call or any other notifications. I use DND in some situations, but it won't work as a daily solution. Another problem is that I want VO to speak the notifications while the screen is unlocked, IE when I'm using it. When using my phone or iPad, I'm either in an environment where speech is ok, or I have my headphones on/in.
I don't mean to seem picky, I hope I'm explaining what I want my i-devices to do.
Thank you for asking.

Hi, Brian.
Thanks for asking. My goal is this. If my screen is off, I don't want VO reading my notifications. I do want to hear the notification sound. Of course, VO doesn't read the content while the screen is locked, but it tells me more than I want. For example, if I get a notification from my bank, VO won't read it until I unlock, that's good, but it does say something like: "(my bank), (my bank), one notification." If my screen is locked, VO should assume it's not safe or appropriate to say anything about who/what is trying to contact me. People who can see are able to hear a notification sound: text, email, or other apps, but only know they have something to look at. If the bos is looking over their sholder, they aren't going to pull out the phone until the bos goes and time permits. When I get a notification from my bank, everyone around me who can understand VO knows. I've been asked if I'm low on funds, for example, and have to explain that I get notified for payments and deposits.

I hope that better explains things. When my phone is unlocked, I like VO to read whatever comes in, as it normally does. I just want it to keep quiet when the screen is locked/off.