Hi Julie

There is an inbuilt spell checker in Totara which requires executable paths to be enabled in the config.db file - can you check if this is disabled

// Some administration options allow setting the path to executable files. This can
// potentially cause a security risk. Set this option to true to disable editing
// those config settings via the web. They will need to be set explicitly in the
// config.php file
// $CFG->preventexecpath = true;

I think most browsers have spell checkers built in so might be difficult to prevent this in Totara

regards