Switching Voiceover on and off on iPad Pro

On my iPad Pro (2018 Apple iPad Pro 12.9" - with no home button), is there a way of programming the on/off switch to turn Voiceover on and off directly?
Sometimes I need to switch Voiceover off in order to carry out a function, and then switch Voiceover back on again e.g. to select a button which is not text-tagged.
This is easy on my iPhone where I use the home button 3 times to turn Voiceover on and off. However, my iPad has no home button. Instead I press the on/off button 3 times. Instead of simply switching Voiceover off, this brings up a window where I have to select Voiceover from a list, and I have to do the same in reverse to switch it back on again.
I find this process involves too many steps.