This seems totally bizzare, but occurs across multiple apps.  I recently switched my keyboard layout to dvorak.  Most accelerators work fine, but those which are "symbols" act as if it were a qwerty layout.  For example, gnome-dictionary hooks up to "/" to focus the search field.  On dvorak, the "z" character occupies that key, so typing a "z" focuses the search, rather than inserting a z in the entry.  Letter accels (such as ctrl+c, etc.) work as expected.

Interestingly, "/" also works as expected (focuses the find entry)