Duplicate access keys
Automated check accesskeys, run with axe-core
- WCAG
- Best practice: a recommendation, not a WCAG success criterion
- Severity
- Moderate: a degraded experience
- Typical effort
- Quick win, under 1 hour
- Category
- Keyboard
Who this affects
Keyboard users who rely on shortcut keys.
Why it matters
When two elements share an access key, the shortcut triggers only one of them, or behaves differently between browsers.
How to fix it
Give each accesskey a unique value, or remove access keys altogether: they often clash with browser and screen reader shortcuts.
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Related checks: Keyboard
- Hidden elements can still receive keyboard focus
- Elements with role="text" contain focusable content
- No way to skip repeated navigation
- Focusable elements have no suitable role
- Frames with interactive content cannot be reached by keyboard
- Scrollable areas cannot be reached by keyboard
- Skip links point to nothing
- Positive tabindex values disrupt focus order