IBM Concert

IBM Strategic Partnerships

Business Consulting Services | IBM

IBM Apptio

IBMers Collection | IBM

Cost of a data breach 2025 | IBM

IBM HashiCorp

IBM Heritage | IBM

IBM AI Models

IT Automation Solutions | IBM

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

International Business Machines

	Title / URL	Issues
	IBM Concertwww.ibm.com/products/concert	3
	IBM Strategic Partnershipswww.ibm.com/strategic-partnerships	1
	Business Consulting Services \| IBMwww.ibm.com/consulting?lnk=hpfp4us	1
	IBM Apptiowww.ibm.com/products/apptio	1
	IBMers Collection \| IBMwww.ibm.com/history/ibmers	1
	Cost of a data breach 2025 \| IBMwww.ibm.com/reports/data-breach?lnk=hpls1us	1
	IBM HashiCorpwww.ibm.com/products/hashicorp	1
	IBM Heritage \| IBMwww.ibm.com/history?lnk=hpii1us	1
	IBM AI Modelswww.ibm.com/solutions/ai-models?lnk=hpfp3us	1
	IT Automation Solutions \| IBMwww.ibm.com/solutions/automation?lnk=hpfp6us	1

Ensure form controls have labels

International Business Machines

Where this issue has occurred