UK Export Academy

Exporting guide to Japan - great.gov.uk - great.gov.uk

Report a trade barrier Welcome to great.gov.uk - great.gov.uk

Exporting guide to Zimbabwe - great.gov.uk - great.gov.uk

Cookies policy | Department for Business and Trade - great.gov.uk

Markets

Exporting guide to France - great.gov.uk - great.gov.uk

Exporting guide to El Salvador - great.gov.uk - great.gov.uk

Exporting guide to Dominica - great.gov.uk - great.gov.uk

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

January 2026

December 2025

Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Title / URL	Issues
UK Export Academywww.great.gov.uk/export-academy/signup	2
Exporting guide to Japan - great.gov.uk - great.gov.ukwww.great.gov.uk/markets/japan/	1
Report a trade barrier Welcome to great.gov.uk - great.gov.ukwww.great.gov.uk/report-trade-barrier/	1
Exporting guide to Zimbabwe - great.gov.uk - great.gov.ukwww.great.gov.uk/markets/zimbabwe/	1
Cookies policy \| Department for Business and Trade - great.gov.ukwww.great.gov.uk/cookies-policy/	1
Marketswww.great.gov.uk/markets/	1
Exporting guide to France - great.gov.uk - great.gov.ukwww.great.gov.uk/markets/france/	1
Marketswww.great.gov.uk/markets/?page=6	1
Exporting guide to El Salvador - great.gov.uk - great.gov.ukwww.great.gov.uk/markets/el-salvador/	1
Exporting guide to Dominica - great.gov.uk - great.gov.ukwww.great.gov.uk/markets/dominica/	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Where this issue has occurred