Share your Artsmark story | Artsmark

Blog | Artsmark

Organisations | Artsmark

Celebration Week Social Media content | Artsmark

Artswork | Artsmark

Quality Principles | Artsmark

Sowing the Seeds of Creativity | Artsmark

Knife Crime Awareness | Artsmark

When Science Meets Dance | Artsmark

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

May 2025

April 2025

Artsmark

Title / URL	Issues
Share your Artsmark story \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/share-your-artsmark-story	1
Blog \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/blog?f%5B0%5D=category%3ACovid-19	1
Organisations \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/organisations?page=4	1
Organisations \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/organisations?page=6	1
Celebration Week Social Media content \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/celebrate-artsmark/resources/social	1
Artswork \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/organisations/artswork	1
Quality Principles \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/support-resources/quality-principles	1
Sowing the Seeds of Creativity \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/blog/sowing-seeds-creativity	1
Knife Crime Awareness \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/blog/knife-crime-awareness	1
When Science Meets Dance \| Artsmarkwww.artsmark.org.uk/blog/when-science-meets-dance	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Artsmark

Where this issue has occurred