Academics | MICA

MICA Leadership | MICA

Give to MICA | MICA

About MICA | MICA

Offices & Divisions | MICA

404 - Page Not Found | MICA | MICA

Events & Exhibitions | MICA

Academic Catalog | MICA

MICA

Creatives at Work | MICA

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

Maryland Institute College of Art

	Title / URL	Issues
	Academics \| MICAwww.mica.edu/academics/	1
	MICA Leadership \| MICAwww.mica.edu/about-mica/leadership/	1
	Give to MICA \| MICAwww.mica.edu/give-to-mica/	1
	About MICA \| MICAwww.mica.edu/about-mica/	1
	Offices & Divisions \| MICAwww.mica.edu/about-mica/offices-divisions/	1
	404 - Page Not Found \| MICA \| MICAwww.mica.edu/invented-url-for-404-page	1
	Events & Exhibitions \| MICAwww.mica.edu/events-exhibitions/	1
	Academic Catalog \| MICAwww.mica.edu/academics/academic-catalog/	1
	MICAwww.mica.edu/	1
	Creatives at Work \| MICAwww.mica.edu/stories/creatives-at-work/	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Maryland Institute College of Art

Where this issue has occurred