Disable Space Bar and Return Keys?

I was hoping my "space bar" trigger would override the default behavior of the space bar in the course.

Space bar is most commonly used in my target audience for "Pause/Resume" so when the user hits the space bar, I light box a pause slide (to get all media on the underlying slide to pause). Then, when they hit the space bar again, the light box closes and they resume.

Sometimes (not always which is also odd) hitting the space bar will "click" a button I have placed at the top right on the main layer of the slide.

What you're saying is there's no way to disable the default behavior of the space bar which clicks buttons.

Is there a way to ensure which button gets clicked when hitting the space bar? If this is possible, I can add a dummy button to catch the default space bar click and do nothing in response.

Ironically, I'm building this course to be maximally accessible and the "click" feature of the space bar is turning on my American Sign Language layer - an unintended behavior especially if the learner is blind.

Thanks