Geneva & The Finger Lakes | About | HWS Colleges

Experiential Education | Hobart and William Smith

Community Events Calendar | Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Offices/Administration | Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Stay Connected | Alums & Friends | Hobart and William Smith

News | Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Hobart Bicentennial Celebration | Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Athletics | Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Give to HWS | Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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

November 2025

October 2025

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Title / URL	Issues
Geneva & The Finger Lakes \| About \| HWS Collegeswww.hws.edu/about/geneva.aspx	1
Experiential Education \| Hobart and William Smithwww.hws.edu/centers/default.aspx	1
Community Events Calendar \| Hobart and William Smith Collegeswww.hws.edu/news/calendar.aspx	1
Offices/Administration \| Hobart and William Smith Collegeswww.hws.edu/offices/default.aspx	1
Stay Connected \| Alums & Friends \| Hobart and William Smithwww.hws.edu/alum/connected.aspx	1
News \| Hobart and William Smith Collegeswww.hws.edu/news/default.aspx	1
Hobart Bicentennial Celebration \| Hobart and William Smith Collegeswww.hws.edu/hobart-bicentennial/	1
Athletics \| Hobart and William Smith Collegeswww.hws.edu/athletics.aspx	1
Give to HWS \| Hobart and William Smith Collegeswww.hws.edu/alum/give.aspx	1
404www.hws.edu/invented-url-for-404-page	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Where this issue has occurred