Search | The Health Insurance Authority

Choosing a policy | The Health Insurance Authority

Health Insurance Authority | The Health Insurance Authority

Procurement | The Health Insurance Authority

Health insurance comparison | The Health Insurance Authority

What we do | The Health Insurance Authority

About us | The Health Insurance Authority

Risk equalisation | The Health Insurance Authority

Page not found | The Health Insurance Authority

Governance | The Health Insurance Authority

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

May 2025

April 2025

Health Insurance Authority

Title / URL	Issues
Search \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/search	2
Choosing a policy \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/information/choosing-a-policy	1
Health Insurance Authority \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/	1
Procurement \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/about-us/governance/procurement	1
Health insurance comparison \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/health-insurance-comparison	1
What we do \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/about-us/what-we-do	1
About us \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/about-us	1
Risk equalisation \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/regulations/risk-equalisation	1
Page not found \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/invented-url-for-404-page	1
Governance \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/about-us/governance	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Health Insurance Authority

Where this issue has occurred