ISHA leaflets and guidance

Home | Islington & Shoreditch Housing Association

ISHA and the environment

Health and safety

Ways to get involved

In your area

Outreach and support service

ISHA parking

Dealing with anti-social behaviour

Becoming an ISHA customer | Islington & Shoreditch Housing Association

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

February 2025

January 2025

Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association Limited

Title / URL	Issues
ISHA leaflets and guidancewww.isha.co.uk/publications/isha_leaflets.html	3
Home \| Islington & Shoreditch Housing Associationwww.isha.co.uk/	3
ISHA and the environmentwww.isha.co.uk/about_isha/green_issues.html	3
Health and safetywww.isha.co.uk/your_home/health-and-safety	3
Ways to get involvedwww.isha.co.uk/get_involved	3
In your areawww.isha.co.uk/your_home/in_your_area/in-your-area.html	3
Outreach and support servicewww.isha.co.uk/outreach-and-support	3
ISHA parkingwww.isha.co.uk/your_home/isha_parking.html	3
Dealing with anti-social behaviourwww.isha.co.uk/your_home/asb.html	3
Becoming an ISHA customer \| Islington & Shoreditch Housing Associationwww.isha.co.uk/Becoming_a_customer	3

Ensure form controls have labels

Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association Limited

Where this issue has occurred