Families | Grinnell College

Social Connections | Grinnell College

Students | Grinnell College

First time visit: View without clicking anything

Visit Grinnell | Grinnell College

Grinnell College | Grinnell College

Land Acknowledgement | Grinnell College

Commencement | Grinnell College

Grinnell College National Poll | Grinnell College

Career Exploration and Preparation | Grinnell College

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

Grinnell College

Title / URL	Issues
Families \| Grinnell Collegewww.grinnell.edu/families	1
Social Connections \| Grinnell Collegewww.grinnell.edu/students/social	1
Students \| Grinnell Collegewww.grinnell.edu/students	1
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.grinnell.edu/	1
Visit Grinnell \| Grinnell Collegewww.grinnell.edu/admission/visit	1
Grinnell College \| Grinnell Collegewww.grinnell.edu/	1
Land Acknowledgement \| Grinnell Collegewww.grinnell.edu/about/land	1
Commencement \| Grinnell Collegewww.grinnell.edu/about/leadership/offices-services/conference-operations/commencement	1
Grinnell College National Poll \| Grinnell Collegewww.grinnell.edu/poll	1
Career Exploration and Preparation \| Grinnell Collegewww.grinnell.edu/students/career	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Grinnell College

Where this issue has occurred