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Got ready for a fight after the #DesignSystem team was asked to create a read-only variant for checkboxes and radio buttons. I started preparing arguments why we shouldn‘t. But then the designers just accepted my proposal to present the content as regular text instead. It can be that easy. Love it!

8/10/26, 10:21 am1 repost8 likes

Sam Rose

@samwho.dev

Ooh I’d love to hear why read-only checkboxes are bad. I agree, to be clear, but the only reference I have is that I used them in ngrok.com/blog/probes and they confused a few people. Is there more to it?

Dominik 🔮

@tkdodo.eu

It might be doable for checkboxes because they have distinct values but for other controls, you lose information if you don't have a readonly control, like a slider where you also get min/max. So for consistency we also have e.g. disabled toggle buttons