diff --git a/public/js/app.js b/public/js/app.js
index 3d3249a..c4de0c0 100644
--- a/public/js/app.js
+++ b/public/js/app.js
@@ -894,6 +894,7 @@ function exportToNextcloud(elementId, docType) {
 }
 
 function createSpeechRecognition() {
+  if (window.WebSpeechRecognition && !window.WebSpeechRecognition.isEnabled()) return null;
   if (!(window.SpeechRecognition || window.webkitSpeechRecognition)) return null;
   var SR = window.SpeechRecognition || window.webkitSpeechRecognition;
   var rec = new SR();
diff --git a/test/transcription-memory-policy.test.js b/test/transcription-memory-policy.test.js
index b6ff599..a76f7b6 100644
--- a/test/transcription-memory-policy.test.js
+++ b/test/transcription-memory-policy.test.js
@@ -56,3 +56,9 @@ test('browser Whisper is removed from public runtime and user settings', () => {
   const server = read('server.js');
   assert.doesNotMatch(server, /wasm-unsafe-eval|unsafe-eval|huggingface\.co|cdn-lfs|transformers/);
 });
+
+test('browser speech recognition is gated by explicit user setting', () => {
+  const app = read('public/js/app.js');
+  const speechFactory = app.match(/function createSpeechRecognition\(\) \{[\s\S]*?\n\}/)[0];
+  assert.match(speechFactory, /window\.WebSpeechRecognition && !window\.WebSpeechRecognition\.isEnabled\(\)/);
+});