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The MediaWiki software contains many keyboard shortcuts. You can use them to access certain features of Wikipedia more quickly.

Using access keys

An access key allows a computer user to immediately jump to a specific part of a web page via the keyboard. On Wikipedia, access keys allow you to do a lot more—protect a page, show page history, publish your changes, show preview text, and so on. See the next section for the full list.

Most web browsers require holding down one or two modifier keys to use an access key. Different web browsers invoke access keys in different ways. Please use the list below to determine the appropriate key combination for your browser and system:

List of access keys

Sortable list

Currently, in the a–z range, only a is unassigned. p, v, w are assigned to multiple functions, depending on the context.

Display access keys

By modifying your user CSS file, access key shortcuts can be displayed before internal links on any Wikipedia page.

CSS with shortcuts shown on hover
Play the video to see how this CSS snippet works. The skin used here is Vector, but this will work for any skin.
a:hover[accesskey]:before { content: " " attr(accesskey) " "; text-transform: uppercase; white-space: pre; font-family: sans-serif; margin-right: 0.5ex; color: black;}
CSS with shortcuts shown always
Adding this code displays the access keys on every Wikipedia page, as shown in this picture.
a[accesskey]:before { content: " " attr(accesskey) " "; text-transform: uppercase; white-space: pre; font-family: sans-serif; margin-right: 0.5ex; color: black;}
CSS with shortcuts shown always with a box
This is identical to the above code except the access keys are displayed with boxes around them.
a[accesskey]:before { content: " " attr(accesskey) " "; text-transform: uppercase; white-space: pre; border: thin solid; font-family: sans-serif; text-decoration: underline overline; margin-right: 0.5ex; color: black;}

This will not display the accesskeys provided by the VisualEditor (or the mw:2017 wikitext editor), such as 's' to publish the page, as those accesskeys are implemented differently.

Accessibility of access keys

Keyboard shortcuts, in the way they are implemented on Wikipedia, are useful for some users with disabilities and do not require JavaScript to work. At the same time, they are bothersome for some screen reader users because it interferes with the shortcuts of their screen reader. The best solution would be to have customizable keyboard shortcuts.

The accessibility of keyboard shortcuts (access keys) is a complicated matter. This feature, in its current implementation, was temporarily abandoned in WCAG 2.0, notably because it conflicts with the shortcuts of assistive technologies. Usage of access keys is currently discouraged in the online contents and applications.[needs update]

But presence of access keys is also an Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) requirement—the ATAG approach is particularly relevant in Wikipedia's case—where this matter is looked into thoroughly. In particular, ATAG requires the possibility to customize shortcuts. This should be requested in phab:T2477.

Currently, their presence in Wikipedia's interface can be problematic for some users and can be useful for others. But more importantly, it misleads developers into thinking that the interface is keyboard accessible. Requirements that need to be fulfilled for a website to be keyboard accessible are not related to keyboard shortcuts (G90, F42, SCR35, F58, F61).

Known issues: Gadgets which block keyboard shortcuts

User scripts that modify keyboard shortcuts

Some user scripts allow you to add more keyboard shortcuts for various actions or customize existing ones:

Disabling access keys

A gadget exists that may be enabled to remove access key functionality. This may be opted in to using Special:Preferences

See also

Notes

  1. ^ For some keys (e.g., r), both Alt and Alt+⇧ Shift work; For other keys (e.g. f), only Alt+⇧ Shift works; For other keys (e.g. .), only Alt works.
  2. ^ The Alt key without Shift can be used if a Firefox preference in "about:config" is changed: set "ui.key.generalAccessKey" to 18 (see MozillaZine Knowledge Base).
  3. ^ In some versions you may then need to press ↵ Enter
  4. ^ Copy the following code, edit your user JavaScript, then paste:
    {{subst:lusc|1= User:Enterprisey/up-one-lvl-kbd.js}}
  5. ^ Copy the following code, edit your user JavaScript, then paste:
    {{subst:lusc|1= User:Enterprisey/hover-edit-section.js}}
  6. ^ Copy the following code, edit your user JavaScript, then paste:
    {{subst:lusc|1= User:Enterprisey/page-info-kbd-shortcut.js}}
  7. ^ Copy the following code, edit your user JavaScript, then paste:
    {{subst:lusc|1= User:Enterprisey/superjump.js}}
  8. ^ Copy the following code, edit your user JavaScript, then paste:
    {{subst:lusc|1= User:Guarapiranga/accessKeysCheatSheet.js}}
  9. ^ Copy the following code, edit your user JavaScript, then paste:
    {{subst:lusc|1= User:Tollens/safemodeShortcut.js}}

External links