Welcome | NHS Orkney

NHS Orkney | Looking after our community and providing excellent care

First time visit: View without clicking anything

News | NHS Orkney

Publications | NHS Orkney

Public Health | NHS Orkney

Drugs and Alcohol | NHS Orkney

Thinking and Cognition - Neurology | NHS Orkney

NHS Orkney Annual Review 2023 | NHS Orkney

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

August 2025

July 2025

NHS Orkney

Title / URL	Issues
Welcome \| NHS Orkneywww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/home	7
NHS Orkney \| Looking after our community and providing excellent carewww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/node	7
Welcome \| NHS Orkneywww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/	7
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/	7
News \| NHS Orkneywww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/news	2
Publications \| NHS Orkneywww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/publications	2
Public Health \| NHS Orkneywww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/service/public-health	1
Drugs and Alcohol \| NHS Orkneywww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/your-health/drugs-and-alcohol	1
Thinking and Cognition - Neurology \| NHS Orkneywww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/thinking-and-cognition-neurology	1
NHS Orkney Annual Review 2023 \| NHS Orkneywww.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/nhs-orkney-annual-review-2023	1

Ensure form controls have labels

NHS Orkney

Where this issue has occurred