A keypad includes a plurality of keys that can be selectively coupled electrically with a printed circuit board to create electrical signals representative of a characters to be input to the portable wireless device. Each key further includes a plurality of contact points wherein each contact point can be separately electrically coupled with the printed circuit board to input a character associated with that contact point. The keypad can be switched between a singular mode in which all the contact points for a given key will refer to the same input character and a multiple mode in which each contact point for a given key will refer to a different input character. In addition, at least some of the contact points for each key can be programmed by the user to assign desired characters to specific contact points.