Can you use an accesskey attribute on an option tag?

Question

Is there a technique to use an accesskey attribute on an <option> tag?

I know you can use it on a <select>, but I have a requirement to use it on an <option> within a <select>.

Example: I need to do something like this?

<select>
    <option>Blah</option>
    <option accesskey="5">5</option>
</select>

Thanks for your help.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 28 '11 at 08:16

1

Having an accesskey attribute on an <option> tag doesn’t validate as HTML4, but does as HTML5.

I’ve made a test case on JSFiddle — accesskey 9 is assigned to the text field, whilst accesskey 2 is assigned to the second <option> in the <select>.

Firefox 5 on the Mac doesn’t focus the <option> when you activate its accesskey (using CTRL+2 — see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_key#Access_in_different_browsers), but Chrome 12 does (CTRL+ALT+2).

Theoretically, you could write some JavaScript to listen for this specific key combination and set the <select>’s selected option, but I’m not sure if that’s worth it, or a good idea — it might confuse users more than anything else.

answered Jul 28 '11 at 08:16

Paul D. Waite

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Thanks for your help Paul, I might need to use something like js-hotkeys. – duyker Jul 29 '11 at 00:32
1

js-hotkeys looks like the solution. Thanks again. – duyker Jul 29 '11 at 04:37
@duyker: aha, a pre-built JavaScript solution, that sounds good. You’re most welcome. – Paul D. Waite Jul 29 '11 at 08:25

Can you use an accesskey attribute on an option tag?

1 Answers1