E-commerce consulting and coaching to grow online | BDC.ca

Information & communication technology - Articles and tools | BDC.ca

Money and finance - Articles and tools | BDC.ca

Resources for Canadian businesses facing U.S. tariffs | BDC.ca

Marketing and sales consulting - Strategy and action plans | BDC.ca

Business loans and business financing | BDC.ca

Equipment purchase financing for entrepreneurs | BDC.ca

BDC Capital - Venture Capital - With You to Grow | BDC.ca

404 Error | BDC.ca

BDC Capital - Turning great ideas into great companies | BDC.ca

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

Business Development Bank of Canada

Title / URL	Issues
E-commerce consulting and coaching to grow online \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/en/consulting/ecommerce	1
Information & communication technology - Articles and tools \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/technology	1
Money and finance - Articles and tools \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/money-finance	1
Resources for Canadian businesses facing U.S. tariffs \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/en/special-support/tariffs	1
Marketing and sales consulting - Strategy and action plans \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/en/consulting/sales-marketing	1
Business loans and business financing \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/en/financing	1
Equipment purchase financing for entrepreneurs \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/en/financing/equipment-loan	1
BDC Capital - Venture Capital - With You to Grow \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/en/bdc-capital/venture-capital	1
404 Error \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/invented-url-for-404-page	1
BDC Capital - Turning great ideas into great companies \| BDC.cawww.bdc.ca/en/bdc-capital	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Business Development Bank of Canada

Where this issue has occurred