First time visit: View without clicking anything

Library | Davidson

Davidson College | Davidson

Arts at Davidson | Davidson

Mission and Values | Davidson

Get Involved | Davidson

News & Events | Davidson

Catalyst | Davidson

Alumni & Families | Davidson

Majors, Minors and Programs | Davidson

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

June 2025

May 2025

Davidson College

Title / URL	Issues
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.davidson.edu/	2
Library \| Davidsonwww.davidson.edu/library	2
Davidson College \| Davidsonwww.davidson.edu/	2
Arts at Davidson \| Davidsonwww.davidson.edu/arts	1
Mission and Values \| Davidsonwww.davidson.edu/about/mission-and-values	1
Get Involved \| Davidsonwww.davidson.edu/campus-life/get-involved	1
News & Events \| Davidsonwww.davidson.edu/news-events	1
Catalyst \| Davidsonwww.davidson.edu/catalyst	1
Alumni & Families \| Davidsonwww.davidson.edu/alumni-and-families	1
Majors, Minors and Programs \| Davidsonwww.davidson.edu/majors-minors-programs	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Davidson College

Where this issue has occurred