WordPress plugin

Keyboard shortcut setup

How to enable and configure the AccessYes keyboard shortcut that lets visitors open the widget without clicking the button. Covers the default shortcut, custom key combinations, and conflict checking.

Updated

In this article: How to enable the keyboard shortcut for the AccessYes widget, how to choose a key combination, how to check for conflicts with your browser and theme, and what the shortcut announces to screen reader users.

The AccessYes widget can be opened using a keyboard shortcut in addition to clicking the floating button. This is useful for keyboard-only users, power users, and visitors who find the floating button hard to reach or prefer not to interrupt their keyboard flow to reach for the mouse.

The shortcut is disabled by default. Enable it from AccessYes → Appearance (or AccessYes → Features, depending on your version) in the WordPress admin.

Enabling the keyboard shortcut

  1. Go to AccessYes in the WordPress admin
  2. In the Appearance section, find the Keyboard shortcut option
  3. Toggle the shortcut on

Once enabled, the default shortcut Alt + A opens and closes the widget panel from any page on your site.

The default shortcut: Alt + A

The default key combination is Alt + A (on Mac: Option + A). This combination was chosen because:

  • Alt + A is not assigned by any major browser on Windows, macOS, or Linux
  • Alt modifier shortcuts are commonly associated with browser and OS accessibility features, making it intuitive
  • The letter A is a natural mnemonic for “accessibility”

When the shortcut is active, pressing it from anywhere on the page opens the widget panel. If the panel is already open, pressing it again closes it.

Customising the shortcut

If the default shortcut conflicts with another key binding on your site (such as a keyboard navigation pattern in your theme or a shortcut registered by another plugin), you can set a custom combination.

How to set a custom shortcut

  1. Enable the shortcut as described above
  2. Click the shortcut key field
  3. Press your desired key combination

The field captures the key combination you press rather than letting you type into it. For example, pressing Alt + W sets the shortcut to Alt + W.

Supported modifier keys

The shortcut supports the following modifier keys in combination with a letter or number:

  • Alt (or Option on Mac)
  • Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac)
  • Shift
  • Alt + Shift
  • Ctrl + Shift

A modifier key is required — bare letter shortcuts without a modifier are not supported because they would conflict with typing in inputs and other text fields.

Checking for conflicts

Before deploying a custom shortcut, verify it does not conflict with:

Browser shortcuts

Common browser shortcuts to avoid:

BrowserConflicting shortcut
All browsersAlt + D (address bar), Alt + F (file menu on Windows), Alt + Left/Right (browser history navigation)
FirefoxAlt + H (Help menu on Windows), Alt + B (Bookmarks)
SafariCmd + Shift + A (App Store on macOS)

WordPress admin shortcuts

The WordPress block editor registers Ctrl + Shift + Alt + M and several other combinations. Front-end pages do not load the block editor, so these only apply if your widget is visible in the admin area, which is unusual.

Theme and plugin shortcuts

Check whether any JavaScript on your site registers addEventListener('keydown', ...) with the combination you intend to use. You can do this by searching your theme’s and plugins’ JavaScript files for the key code, or by testing the combination on a staging version of the site before deploying.

How the shortcut is announced to users

When the shortcut is enabled, AccessYes adds a note to the widget button’s accessible label. Screen readers announce the shortcut when the button receives focus — for example: “Accessibility widget. Press Alt + A to open.”

This means keyboard users who tab to the button will learn about the shortcut automatically on their first visit, without needing to find it in a help section.

The announcement respects the widget language setting. If the widget is in French, the shortcut announcement is also in French.

Shortcut and the keyboard-only user experience

For keyboard-only users, the floating widget button is already reachable via Tab. The button appears in the tab order of the page and has a visible focus ring. The shortcut is an additional convenience, not the primary keyboard entry point.

The widget panel itself is fully keyboard-operable:

  • All tools are reachable by Tab
  • Tools are activated by Enter or Space
  • Escape closes the panel and returns focus to the widget button

This means keyboard-only users can use the entire widget without needing the shortcut at all. The shortcut speeds up repeated access for users who open and close the widget frequently during a session.