Leaflets and guidance

Renting

Home | Islington & Shoreditch Housing Association

Publications

Sustainability

Resident involvement

Outreach and support

Newsletter

Parking

Buying a home

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

June 2025

May 2025

Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association Limited

	Title / URL	Issues
	Leaflets and guidancewww.isha.co.uk/publications/isha_leaflets.html	2
	Rentingwww.isha.co.uk/finding_a_home/renting	2
	Home \| Islington & Shoreditch Housing Associationwww.isha.co.uk/	2
	Publicationswww.isha.co.uk/downloads/download_publications/publications.html	2
	Sustainabilitywww.isha.co.uk/about_isha/green_issues.html	2
	Resident involvementwww.isha.co.uk/get_involved	2
	Outreach and supportwww.isha.co.uk/outreach-and-support	2
	Newsletterwww.isha.co.uk/newsletter-sign-up	2
	Parkingwww.isha.co.uk/your_home/isha_parking.html	2
	Buying a homewww.isha.co.uk/finding_a_home/buying-a-home.html	2

Ensure form controls have labels

Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association Limited

Where this issue has occurred