A few months ago, I updated to Big Sur. Right after updating, I noticed that when arrowing through text character by character, it will occasionally skip a character. Also, in Numbers, when moving left to right, it will occasionally skip a column. This could be a hardware issue with the right arrow on my keyboard, causing it to register a double key press, but I don't think so, for two reasons. First, I didn't notice this problem until right after updating. Second, and more importantly, when it skips a character, VO will say the entire word the cursor is in, which would not happen with a double arrow key press. I have a 2015 MacBook Pro, bought new in late 2016. It's almost five years old but it has a keyboard design which is not known to be prone to problems. The keyboard problems didn't start until the 2016 MBPs. I am inclined to think this is a software issue, perhaps related to VO cursor tracking, but I'm not very familiar with the VO tracking options, as I have always used the default configuration with regard to tracking. I am curious if anyone else here has had a similar experience and if anyone knows how I might fix the problem. It's getting really annoying.
Comments
Try toggling Quick Nav on…
Try toggling Quick Nav on and off when this happens and see if this fixes the issue. I have the opposite issue where VO will read character by character if I'm navigating using option and the arrows to read word by word. I find this is a Quick Nav issue and toggling it on and off works to fix it.
If it persists, send a note to Apple aCcessibility and see if they can reproduce it with the same steps.
I've Experienced This Too...
Hello Scott. I've experienced this too off and on starting only this year, but oddly enough I still have my mid-2013 MacBook Air. I've found that toggling QuickNav on/off with VO Q helps only some of the time.
Interesting Find Concerning Bluetooth Keyboard
Hi Ekaj. Quick nav doesn't help the issue any in my case. I have found something interesting. I have a Apple bluetooth keyboard. It's the old style, the kind that uses double A batteries. I paired it with my MacBook and have been using it all afternoon. As long as I use it, I do not have the issue. When I use the MacBook's built in keyboard, the issue returns. I suppose that this would suggest a hardware problem but it still doesn't sound to me like a hardware problem. That's partly because I have a hard time believing that it is just a coincidence that this issue started right after the OS upgrade. I suppose it could still be a software issue and VO somehow handles the input from a bluetooth keyboard differently than from the built in keyboard. Or maybe I'm just stubborn and don't want to accept that my MacBook keyboard is toast. LOL. Do you have a bluetooth keyboard that you could try to see if it solves the problem for you? If it solves it for you too, then it is most likely a software issue.