Manual test: does accesskey make an element focusable?

There is a heading, with accesskey="я".

Expected result

A shortcut based on "я" plus modifiers should fire a click on the heading, which should open a new tab or window with the github page for this test. Ideally, but not required by spec, it should be possible to "tab" to the heading.

It should be possible to "activate" this heading, opening a new tab/window.

Value of the accessKey DOM attribute:

Results

This test is on github to enable Pull Requests…

Firefox 45, MacOS 10.10.5
It is not possible to focus the heading with the keyboard
ctrl-alt-"я" activates the heading, opening the github page
Firefox exposes "^⌥я" as a value of the accessKeyLabel DOM attribute (removed from HTML 5.1)
Safari 9.1, MacOS 10.10.5
Vivaldi 1.1.453.42, MacOS 10.10.5 (based on Chromium)
It is not possible to focus the heading with the keyboard
ctrl-alt-"я" activates the heading, opening the github page
Opera 36, MacOS 10.10.5 (based on Chromium)
Yandex browser 16.4, MacOS 10.10.5 (based on Chromium)
ctrl-alt-"я" activates the heading, opening the github page. The attempt to open a window is blocked, as if it were not triggered by a user action.
It is not possible to focus the heading with the keyboard
All tested user agents reflect the content of the HTML attribute in the DOM attribute accessKey

Discussion

The accesskey attribute was first defined in HTML 4. An "improved" version was redefined in HTML5, but due to lack of implementation this was reverted in HTML 5.1.

The я key is standard on cyrillic keyboards. A browser that implements either the HTML4 or HTML5 version of accesskey will use it as the base of a shortcut. According to the specification, the heading must be activated.

Because the я key is not available on many common keyboards, it would be a Good Idea™ if browsers made it possible to focus the element. Otherwise for most keyboard users there is no way to activate the functionality, especially since browsers currently fail to make accesskey-activated commands discoverable.