Cat Guardians | Cat care after you're gone | Cats Protection

Giving in memory | Support us | Cats Protection

Lifeline | Cats Protection

Grief and loss | Dealing with your cat's death | Cats Protection

Our Corporate Partners | Cats Protection

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

Adopt Cat FAQs | Cat Rescue Questions | Cats Protection

Annual Review - What We Achieved This Year | Cats Protection

Why we are here | Our Vision | Cats Protection

Become a member | Support us by joining 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

October 2025

September 2025

Cats Protection

	Title / URL	Issues
	Cat Guardians \| Cat care after you're gone \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/what-we-do/catguardians	14
	Giving in memory \| Support us \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/support-us/in-memory	14
	Lifeline \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/what-we-do/cp-lifeline	14
	Grief and loss \| Dealing with your cat's death \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/what-we-do/grief	14
	Our Corporate Partners \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/about-cp/corporate-partners	14
	Find a cat near you \| Adopt a cat \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/adopt-a-cat/find-a-cat	6
	Adopt Cat FAQs \| Cat Rescue Questions \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/adopt-a-cat/adopt-a-cat-faqs	5
	Annual Review - What We Achieved This Year \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/about-cp/annual-review	5
	Why we are here \| Our Vision \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/about-cp/our-vision	5
	Become a member \| Support us by joining Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/support-us/membership	5

Ensure form controls have labels

Cats Protection

Where this issue has occurred