accesskey

The accesskey global attribute provides a hint for generating a keyboard shortcut for the current element. The attribute value must consist of a single printable character (which includes accented and other characters that can be generated by the keyboard).

The way to activate the accesskey depends on the browser and its platform:

Accessibility concerns

In addition to poor browser support, there are numerous concerns with the accesskey attribute:

• An accesskey value can conflict with a system or browser keyboard shortcut, or assistive technology functionality. What may work for one combination of operating system, assistive technology, and browser may not work with other combinations.
• Certain accesskey values may not be present on certain keyboards, especially when internationalization is a concern. So adapting to specific languages could cause further problems.
• accesskey values that rely on numbers may be confusing to individuals experiencing cognitive concerns, where the number doesn't have a logical association with the functionality it triggers.
• Informing the user that accesskeys are present, so that they are aware of the functionality. If the system lacks a method of notifying the user about this feature, the user might accidentally activate accesskeys.

Because of these issues, it is generally advised not to use accesskeys for most general-purpose websites and web apps.

• WebAIM: Keyboard Accessibility - Accesskey

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Element.accessKey
• HTMLElement.accessKeyLabel
• All global attributes.
• aria-keyshortcuts