MEC – Merrimack Education Center

Wish Project Holiday Drive 2017 – MEC

admin – MEC

Community – MEC

Kate Roddy – MEC

About MEC – MEC

Professional Development – MEC

MEC Particpates in “Help for Houston” Drive – MEC

Chelmsford Community Exchange – MEC

Addition Networks – MEC

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

December 2025

November 2025

Merrimack Education Center

	Title / URL	Issues
	MEC – Merrimack Education Centerwww.mec.edu/	4
	Wish Project Holiday Drive 2017 – MECwww.mec.edu/2017/12/wish-project-holiday-drive-2017/	2
	admin – MECwww.mec.edu/author/admin/	2
	Community – MECwww.mec.edu/about-mec/community/	2
	Kate Roddy – MECwww.mec.edu/author/kroddyadditionnetworks-net/	2
	About MEC – MECwww.mec.edu/about-mec/	2
	Professional Development – MECwww.mec.edu/professional-development/	2
	MEC Particpates in “Help for Houston” Drive – MECwww.mec.edu/2017/08/mec-particpates-in-help-for-houston-drive/	2
	Chelmsford Community Exchange – MECwww.mec.edu/2015/11/chelmsford-community-exchange/	2
	Addition Networks – MECwww.mec.edu/addition-networksnetworkutmshark/	2

Ensure form controls have labels

Merrimack Education Center

Where this issue has occurred