Gaming and mental health | Mental Health Foundation

Research | Mental Health Foundation

The Long Covid Project | Mental Health Foundation

Programmes | Mental Health Foundation

Barnardo’s | Mental Health Foundation

OPEN - Our Personal Experience Network | Mental Health Foundation

Refugee programmes | Mental Health Foundation

Our work | Mental Health Foundation

About us | Mental Health Foundation

Mental Health Foundation | Everyone deserves good mental health

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

May 2025

April 2025

Mental Health Foundation

Title / URL	Issues
Gaming and mental health \| Mental Health Foundationwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/research/gaming-and-mental-health	1
Research \| Mental Health Foundationwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/research	1
The Long Covid Project \| Mental Health Foundationwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/programmes/long-covid-peer-support	1
Programmes \| Mental Health Foundationwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/programmes	1
Barnardo’s \| Mental Health Foundationwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/research/barnardos	1
OPEN - Our Personal Experience Network \| Mental Health Foundationwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/research/open	1
Refugee programmes \| Mental Health Foundationwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/programmes/refugees	1
Our work \| Mental Health Foundationwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work	1
About us \| Mental Health Foundationwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/about-us	1
Mental Health Foundation \| Everyone deserves good mental healthwww.mentalhealth.org.uk/	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Mental Health Foundation

Where this issue has occurred