accesskey Attribute

Where to use the accesskey Attribute

• As Type Character:
  accesskey is declared on the elements: a, area, label, input, textarea, button, legend

Description

The accesskey attribute specifies a key which may be used as a shortcut to access a particular element (to bring an interactive form control into focus, to follow a hyperlink, to activate a button, etc.).

Each user agent has a different method for activating accesskeys, some of which are shown in the table below:

Unfortunately, the accesskey approach to keyboard accessibility is flawed. This is because many of the key combinations which are needed to activate particular accesskeys are often reserved for other uses within a variety of user agents. Some browsers have developed accesskey implementations which do not have this flaw (e.g. Opera, Firefox >= 2), but sprinkling accesskeys liberally around a site is very likely to break other keyboard functionality within some users' browsers.

This site defines only one accesskey X which is used as a shortcut to the very top of the page, where other accessibility links are situated. See the site's Accessibility page for more information. X was chosen as the key least likely to interfere with the widest range of user agents.