Please stop making everything clickable
Almost on every website I see accessibility mistakes that have nothing to do with ARIA or WCAG failures - it’s making non-interactive elements interactive. They can be entire cards, headings, images, icons, table rows and even paragraphs.
Just because something can be clicked doesn’t mean it should be.
A simple rule that can help:
➡️ If it performs an action or takes users somewhere → make it interactive.
Examples:
Links
Buttons
Form controls
Menu items
➡️ If it only presents information → don’t make it clickable.
Examples:
Headings
Paragraphs
Decorative icons
Images (unless they’re links)
Static text
Informational cards
Here are a few patterns I often see:
A <div> with an onclick event pretending to be a button.
An entire product card that’s clickable, even though it already contains a “View details” link.
A heading that expands content when it should actually be a <button>.
A table row that acts like a link but isn’t announced as one.
Icons that respond to mouse clicks but can’t be reached with a keyboard.
So why does this matter?
screen readers announce links, buttons and form controls, not generic clickable containers.
keyboard users expect only interactive elements to receive focus.
users quickly learn which elements they can interact with. When everything is clickable, those expectations disappear.
A few facts that surprise many developers:
💡 onclick doesn’t make an element accessible.
💡 replacing native HTML with clickable <div> elements means recreating keyboard support, focus management, and semantics yourself.
💡 nested interactive elements (for example, a button inside a clickable card) often create invalid HTML and confusing user experiences.
Here’s a quick checklist:
✅ Navigation → Use a link (<a>)
✅ Actions → Use a button (<button>)
✅ Information → Leave it non-interactive
✅ Need a clickable card? Make the title a link or provide a clear action button instead of turning the entire card into one large click target.
Good accessibility isn’t about making more things interactive, it’s about making the right things interactive.
What’s the most unexpected clickable element you’ve seen on a website?
