Briefings for the Boardroom

This Week In Leadership

Perspectives

Special Edition

Insights

Institute

Lead Through Change

Talent Suite Resources

Transform for Growth

Organization Strategy

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

Korn Ferry

Title / URL	Issues
Briefings for the Boardroomwww.kornferry.com/insights/briefings-for-the-boardroom	4
This Week In Leadershipwww.kornferry.com/insights/this-week-in-leadership	4
Perspectiveswww.kornferry.com/insights/perspectives	4
Special Editionwww.kornferry.com/insights/special-edition	4
Insightswww.kornferry.com/insights	4
Institutewww.kornferry.com/institute	1
Lead Through Changewww.kornferry.com/expertise/lead-through-change	1
Talent Suite Resourceswww.kornferry.com/insights/talent-suite-resources	1
Transform for Growthwww.kornferry.com/expertise/transform-for-growth	1
Organization Strategywww.kornferry.com/capabilities/organization-strategy	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Korn Ferry

Where this issue has occurred