One-time-click element in HTML without js?

Accessibility
1

I’m looking for a non-javascript one-time-click implementation. Anyone know of one?

The idea is I want to put either a button element, an anchor, or a submit input on my page, and have it disable after it’s clicked the first time (to prevent multiple clicking). Does such a thing exist without resorting to javascript to detect the click event?

2

Not possible without JavaScript

3

The cheese way around that is two identical pages: one with the button/anchor/submit, one without. The old page will still be in their browser history though.

Another trick that wouldn’t work entirely cross browser is, if it’s an anchor, something like

#special:visited {
display: none;
}

sneeeeeky. This’ll stay with them until they clear browser history, which might be the moment they close the browser. If you’re worried about actual accidental double clicks rather than multiple submissions, this could solve that.

If your problem is really a slow server where people click multiple times because they don’t get the feedback that the first action worked, then you know honestly you need to fix the feedback issue rather than mess with the button :stuck_out_tongue: One possibility is a hidden bit of text underneath the button, and similar technique:
<a id=“special” href=“tehbutton”>St Elsewhere</a>
<p>Yr sbmssn iz being processed, yo. kthxbye</p>

#special+p {
display: none;
}
#special:visited {
display: none;
}
#special:visited+p {
display: block;
}