Using accesskey shortcuts to navigate website

In a web browser an access key or accesskey allows a computer user to immediately jump to a specific part of a web page via the keyboard. They were introduced in 1999 and quickly achieved near-universal browser support.

In the summer of 2002, a Canadian Web Accessibility consultancy did an informal survey to see if implementing accesskeys caused issues for users of adaptive technology, especially screen reading technology used by blind and low vision users. These users require numerous keyboard shortcuts to access web pages, as "pointing and clicking" a mouse is not an option for them. Their research showed that most key stroke combinations did in fact present a conflict for one or more of these technologies, and their final recommendation was to avoid using accesskeys altogether.

The World Wide Web Consortium, the organization responsible for establishing internet standards, has acknowledged this short-coming, and in their latest draft documents for a revised web authoring language (XHTML 2), they have deprecated (retired) the ACCESSKEY attribute in favor of the XHTML Role Access Module.

• S - Skip navigation
• 1 - Home page
• 2 - What's new
• 3 - Site map
• 4 - Search
• 5 - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• 6 - Help
• 7 - Complaints procedure
• 8 - Terms and conditions
• 9 - Feedback form
• 0 - Access key details

A more complete list, which browser support the HTML Access keys are compared in the comparison of web browsers.

In most web browsers, the user invokes the access key by pressing Alt (on PC) or Ctrl (on Mac) simultaneously with the appropriate character on the keyboard.

Please note: This table is not exhaustive, your browser may or may not support Access keys.