Weed control

Water

Pet desexing

Understand your rates

Change your details

Pensioner rebates

Late rates payments

Property valuations

Pay your rates

Animals and pets

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

Merri-bek City Council

Title / URL	Issues
Weed controlwww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/environment/weed-control/	20
Waterwww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/environment/water/	20
Pet desexingwww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/animals-and-pets/pet-desexing/	18
Understand your rateswww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/rates/understand-your-rates/	17
Change your detailswww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/rates/change-your-details/	17
Pensioner rebateswww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/rates/pensioner-rebates/	17
Late rates paymentswww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/rates/late-rates-payments/	17
Property valuationswww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/rates/property-valuations/	17
Pay your rateswww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/rates/pay-your-rates/	17
Animals and petswww.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/living-in-merri-bek/animals-and-pets/	10

Ensure form controls have labels

Merri-bek City Council

Where this issue has occurred