Success Criterion 2.1.4
Conformance level A

Global Single-Key Shortcut That Fires During Speech Dictation

2.1.4 — Character Key Shortcuts

Scenario

Setting

An online marketplace's seller dashboard

What’s wrong

Global single-key shortcuts (e.g., "?", "j/k", "s" to search) active page-wide, firing during speech input dictation.

Example

document.addEventListener('keydown', e => { if (e.key === 's') save(); });

Why it matters

Speech-input users and people who press keys accidentally.

How to test

Press single keys like '?' or 'j'/'k'/'s' while browsing normally (not in a text field): if these trigger actions site-wide with no way to disable them, it fails — especially disruptive for speech-input users dictating text.

How to fix

The single-key shortcut must be turn-off-able, remappable to include a modifier key, or active only when its control has focus. document.addEventListener('keydown', e => { if (e.ctrlKey && e.key === 's') save(); }); Single-character shortcuts with no modifier key collide with screen reader and speech-input commands.

Outcome

On an online marketplace's seller dashboard, this barrier is gone for speech-input users and people who press keys accidentally — they get the same result as anyone else here.

Who is affected