CATS Report 2024 | CATS Report | Cats Protection

Blog | Cats Protection

404 |

Find a cat near you | Adopt a cat | Cats Protection

Donate | Help cats and kittens in care | Cats Protection

What we do | Helping cats and kittens | Cats Protection

Our Corporate Partners | Cats Protection

Adopt a cat | Find a cat to adopt | Cats Protection

Adopt Cat FAQs | Cat Rescue Questions | Cats Protection

Giving in memory | Support us | Cats Protection

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

September 2025

August 2025

Cats Protection

	Title / URL	Issues
	CATS Report 2024 \| CATS Report \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/about-cp/cats-report	13
	Blog \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/blog	13
	404 \|www.cats.org.uk/invented-url-for-404-page	13
	Find a cat near you \| Adopt a cat \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/adopt-a-cat/find-a-cat	5
	Donate \| Help cats and kittens in care \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/donate	4
	What we do \| Helping cats and kittens \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/what-we-do	4
	Our Corporate Partners \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/about-cp/corporate-partners	4
	Adopt a cat \| Find a cat to adopt \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/adopt-a-cat	4
	Adopt Cat FAQs \| Cat Rescue Questions \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/adopt-a-cat/adopt-a-cat-faqs	4
	Giving in memory \| Support us \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/support-us/in-memory	4

Ensure form controls have labels

Cats Protection

Where this issue has occurred