What we do | Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

Pages | Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

Donate - Donate to BVSC | Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

Manage volunteers | Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

Research | Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

Join BVSC | Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

Become a volunteer | Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

The Page You Request Does Not Exist | Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

News | Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

Engage for Good Birmingham

People using screen readers are not able to see the layout of a form. To make forms
accessible, they must define explicit text labels for each form control. 

Usually the best solution is to use a `<label>` element. The label may be linked to 
by the form control:

```html
<label for="name">Full name</label>
<input type="name" id="name">
```

or the `<label>` can be wrapped around the form control:

```html
<label>
    Full name <input type="name">
</label>
```

Buttons are different, as their labels are specified by the code for the button, e.g.

```html
<input type="submit" value="Send message">
<button>Send message</button>
```

Alternatively ARIA attributes, such as `aria-label` may be used, but this information
will not be conveyed to visual users. For more information, see [W3C's guide to labeling controls](https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/forms/labels/).

Hidden input fields (`<input type="hidden">`) do not require labels.
Note that the `placeholder` attribute 
[should not be used as an alternative to a label](https://www.w3.org/TR/html/sec-forms.html#the-placeholder-attribute),
nor should the `title` attribute.

## Custom roles

Note that this check considers the underlying accessible role of an element, which can be 
different from the tag itself.

For example, this `<div>` has a `role` of `button`, and so is expected to have a label, like
a button would.

```html
<div role="button"></div>
```

form-control-labels

February 2026

January 2026

Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC)

Title / URL	Issues
What we do \| Birmingham Voluntary Service Councilwww.bvsc.org/what-we-do	1
Pages \| Birmingham Voluntary Service Councilwww.bvsc.org/Pages/	1
Donate - Donate to BVSC \| Birmingham Voluntary Service Councilwww.bvsc.org/donate/donate	1
Manage volunteers \| Birmingham Voluntary Service Councilwww.bvsc.org/manage-volunteers	1
Research \| Birmingham Voluntary Service Councilwww.bvsc.org/Pages/Category/research	1
Join BVSC \| Birmingham Voluntary Service Councilwww.bvsc.org/join-now	1
Become a volunteer \| Birmingham Voluntary Service Councilwww.bvsc.org/become-a-volunteer	1
The Page You Request Does Not Exist \| Birmingham Voluntary Service Councilwww.bvsc.org/invented-url-for-404-page	1
News \| Birmingham Voluntary Service Councilwww.bvsc.org/Listing/Category/news	1
Engage for Good Birminghamwww.bvsc.org/engage-for-good-forum	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC)

Where this issue has occurred