Using Access Keys

Access keys refer to keys which, if activated, would take you to a link, a button, a specific part of a page, or a new page.

For example, if a web page contains an access key of Alt+H for the “Help” section, pressing Alt+H would load the “Help” section of the site. In some browsers, pressing the access key will only take you to the location of the link, button, or section of the page.

Here, we will provide the codes for making access keys and will talk about their benefits and the issues associated with them.

How to Create Access Keys

First, determine the page you wish to go to using the access key. In this example, we will assign an access key to the link for the accessibility statement of a site.

Next, create the link to the target page and add the “accesskey” attribute to the code. The value of the accesskey attribute is the character included in the keystroke for the access key. Here, we declare the letter “A” as the value of the accesskey attribute.


<a href=”accessibility_statement.html” accesskey=”A”>Accessibility Statement</a>


Given this example, when the user presses Alt+A, the browser will load the site’s accessibility statement page.

Benefits of Access Keys

Access keys can be very helpful for persons with motor disabilities. Since people with motor disabilities may have difficulty in using the mouse, they can press an access key to either go to another part of the same page or to a different page.

Access keys also help blind and visually impaired persons. These individuals normally use screen readers which read the contents of a page in a linear fashion (i.e. from top to bottom). This is very different from the way sighted people use web pages. Using access keys, screen reader users do not have to go through all of the page’s content to access a specific part of the page or move to a new page.

Issues in Using Access Keys

No Conventional Use

A major problem concerning access keys is that they have no conventional use. The developer of the page is the one who determines which access key should be assigned to a button or link. So for users to utilize access keys effectively, they first have to figure out what the access keys are. This may cause difficulties as access keys may be different in every site.

Frequency of Page Visits

Another issue concerns the number of times the users visit a page. There are pages which users access on a daily basis. If users access the page very often, they would be able to learn the access keys. From then on, this would help them access content more quickly.

On the other hand, there are pages which users visit only once or twice a month. In this case, it might not be worth it for users to learn the access keys in the page.

Exact Number of Access keys

The exact number of access keys is another issue. There is no specific rule telling developers which links should have access keys. Some sites even have access keys for most of its links. At this point, it becomes too much both for the site developers and the users.

To solve this problem, web developers have to carefully decide which are the most important links in their sites. Developers also have to know how often people use their sites. Only then can they determine whether or not it is a good idea to provide access keys.

Conflict with Browsers

Moving on, access keys may also conflict with browsers. Different browsers have different shortcut keys. If an access key conflicts with any of the shortcut keys of a browser, then the access key will not work. So developers have to find an access key that is not used by any of the browsers. This can be particularly difficult as there is a lot of shortcut keys that have already been used by browsers.

Conflict with Assistive Technology

Access keys may also conflict with assistive technologies. Access keys are intended to help people with disabilities. However, these individuals normally use assistive technologies which also have their own shortcut keys.

Take screen readers for instance. These applications use a set of shortcut keys to help users navigate through pages and access web content. Developers have to make sure their access keys do not conflict with the shortcut keys used by screen readers and other similar technologies. Again, this can make it hard to pick an access key that would work.