Search | The Health Insurance Authority

Funding | The Health Insurance Authority

News and research | The Health Insurance Authority

Procurement | The Health Insurance Authority

Health insurance comparison | The Health Insurance Authority

About us | The Health Insurance Authority

Our vision | The Health Insurance Authority

Governance | The Health Insurance Authority

Page not found | The Health Insurance Authority

Management team | 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

October 2025

September 2025

Health Insurance Authority

	Title / URL	Issues
	Search \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/search	2
	Funding \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/about-us/governance/funding	1
	News and research \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/news-and-research	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
	About us \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/about-us	1
	Our vision \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/about-us/what-we-do/our-vision	1
	Governance \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/about-us/governance	1
	Page not found \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/invented-url-for-404-page	1
	Management team \| The Health Insurance Authoritywww.hia.ie/about-us/who-we-are/management-team	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Health Insurance Authority

Where this issue has occurred