Your Future Hospital | Dorset County Hospital

Services - R | Dorset County Hospital

Information Governance | Dorset County Hospital

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion | Dorset County Hospital

Services - P | Dorset County Hospital

Call for Concern

Library | Dorset County Hospital

CQC Report

Homeshare Accommodation Scheme | Dorset County Hospital

Friends of DCH

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

Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust

Title / URL	Issues
Your Future Hospital \| Dorset County Hospitalwww.dchft.nhs.uk/about-us/your-future-hospital/	5
Services - R \| Dorset County Hospitalwww.dchft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/a-z-of-services/r/	5
Information Governance \| Dorset County Hospitalwww.dchft.nhs.uk/about-us/information-governance/	5
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion \| Dorset County Hospitalwww.dchft.nhs.uk/about-us/equality-diversity-inclusion/	5
Services - P \| Dorset County Hospitalwww.dchft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/a-z-of-services/p/	5
Call for Concernwww.dchft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/call-for-concern/	5
Library \| Dorset County Hospitalwww.dchft.nhs.uk/working-for-us/library/	5
CQC Reportwww.dchft.nhs.uk/about-us/cqc-report/	5
Homeshare Accommodation Scheme \| Dorset County Hospitalwww.dchft.nhs.uk/working-for-us/homeshare/	5
Friends of DCHwww.dchft.nhs.uk/about-us/friends-of-dch/	5

Ensure form controls have labels

Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust

Where this issue has occurred