Alumni | Massachusetts Bay Community College

Admissions Get Started | Massachusetts Bay Community College

Visit Us | Massachusetts Bay Community College

News | Massachusetts Bay Community College

Veterans | Massachusetts Bay Community College

Find your Future at MassBay! | Massachusetts Bay Community College

404 | Massachusetts Bay Community College

Transportation | Massachusetts Bay Community College

Student Accounts: Paying Your Bill | Massachusetts Bay Community College

First time visit: View without clicking anything

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

MassBay Community College

	Title / URL	Issues
	Alumni \| Massachusetts Bay Community Collegewww.massbay.edu/alumni	1
	Admissions Get Started \| Massachusetts Bay Community Collegewww.massbay.edu/admissions	1
	Visit Us \| Massachusetts Bay Community Collegewww.massbay.edu/admissions/visit-us	1
	News \| Massachusetts Bay Community Collegewww.massbay.edu/about/news	1
	Veterans \| Massachusetts Bay Community Collegewww.massbay.edu/veterans	1
	Find your Future at MassBay! \| Massachusetts Bay Community Collegewww.massbay.edu/info-sessions	1
	404 \| Massachusetts Bay Community Collegewww.massbay.edu/invented-url-for-404-page	1
	Transportation \| Massachusetts Bay Community Collegewww.massbay.edu/transportation	1
	Student Accounts: Paying Your Bill \| Massachusetts Bay Community Collegewww.massbay.edu/studentaccounts	1
	First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.massbay.edu/	1

Ensure form controls have labels

MassBay Community College

Where this issue has occurred