Forest Runner | Forestry England

Gruffalo | Forestry England

Volunteering | Forestry England

Running | Forestry England

Play areas | Forestry England

Walking | Forestry England

We are for wildlife | Forestry England

Beavers | Forestry England

Wildlife | Forestry England

Donate today | Forestry England

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

Forestry England

Title / URL	Issues
Forest Runner \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/forest-runner	10
Gruffalo \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/gruffalo	5
Volunteering \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/volunteering	4
Running \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/running	3
Play areas \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/activities/play-areas	2
Walking \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/walking	1
We are for wildlife \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/we-are-wildlife	1
Beavers \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/article/beavers	1
Wildlife \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/wildlife	1
Donate today \| Forestry Englandwww.forestryengland.uk/donate-today	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Forestry England

Where this issue has occurred