2. When a message that I am composing is being automatically saved to my drafts folder the status message indicating this is clearly being announced, as in "copying message to drafts folder." Should this be happening?
Does a sighted person see some kind of indication that this is happening?
3. When I press ctrl-enter to send a message I sometimes hear the beginning of a status announcement but it gets cut off very quickly and I'm not able to determine what it's trying to tell me. I guess I should load the speech viewer to better capture some of what is being announced
I would suggest the speech history add-on. It's a bit more convenient than the speech viewer.