accesskey provides keyboard shortcuts. The restriction is that accesskey works well only with anchors. To bind keyboard shortcuts to other html elements, follow Scott Klarr. Here is an example of binding Alt and L:

var isAlt = false;
function addShortcuts() {
	//add keyboard shortcut
	document.onkeyup = function (e) {
		if (e.which == 18) isAlt = false;
	};
	document.onkeydown = function (e) {
		if (e.which == 18) isAlt = true;
		// Alt-L
		if (e.which == 76 && isAlt == true) {
			$("#add-item").click();
			return false;
		}
	};       
}