Let users remap or disable single-key shortcuts
A single-key shortcut fires on a letter, number, punctuation mark or symbol pressed with no modifier. G217 says give the reader a way to turn those off, remap them, or require a modifier. It is the only sufficient technique W3C documents for 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts at Level A. One exception decides most findings and it is easy to miss. Shortcuts active only while a particular component has focus sit outside the rule, so a select element's typeahead is working as designed. The rule is aimed at shortcuts that stay live across the whole page. W3C also publishes a method for finding them, in order. Ask the designers and developers, search the code for key event listeners, read the documentation, and only then test by hand, following the procedure kept on the matching failure page.
How we find it in an audit
Our reviewers ask the build team first. A code search plus a conversation finds shortcuts faster than any amount of typing. Then we search for key listeners and read the product documentation. Manual testing comes last, and it means typing into the page outside a text field and watching what moves. We check whether each shortcut is page-wide or scoped to a focused component before recording anything.
How affected users experience it
Speech input turns everything the user says into keystrokes, so dictation into a page with live single-key shortcuts is a stream of accidental commands. In a mail app where 'e' archives, a person dictating a reply watches messages disappear as they talk. Screen reader users hit the same collision, because their tool sends single keys of its own, and people with tremors trigger shortcuts by brushing the keyboard.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
Settings offers keyboard shortcuts as off, single-key, or requiring Ctrl, and either of the last two options makes dictation safe.
Fails
A mail app where 'e' archives and '#' deletes, always active, so a dictation user watches messages vanish as they speak.
How this gets tested
The W3C publishes test rules that define what a checker looks for here.
- No keyboard shortcut uses only printable charactersA tool finds candidates, you decide
Other ways to satisfy this rule
2 guides on this site are filed under 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts. W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule on its own. Implement it correctly, in a way your readers' software actually supports, and the rule is met.
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G217: Providing a mechanism to allow users to remap or turn off character key shortcuts. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.