Search | Merseyrail

Plan Your Journey | Merseyrail | Merseyrail

Journey Planning | Merseyrail | Merseyrail

Ticket prices | day saver | family tickets | groups | concessions | Merseyrail

Travel Information | Merseyrail

Alexa | Merseyrail

404 | Merseyrail

Getting to our stations by bus | Access 68 Merseyrail stations by bus | Merseyrail

Ticket Information | Merseyrail

Plus Bus | Merseyrail | Merseyrail

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

Merseyrail

Title / URL	Issues
Search \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/search/	3
Plan Your Journey \| Merseyrail \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/journey-planning/plan-your-journey/	2
Journey Planning \| Merseyrail \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/journey-planning/	2
Ticket prices \| day saver \| family tickets \| groups \| concessions \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/tickets-passes/daily-travel/	1
Travel Information \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/journey-planning/travel-information/	1
Alexa \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/journey-planning/alexa/	1
404 \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/invented-url-for-404-page/	1
Getting to our stations by bus \| Access 68 Merseyrail stations by bus \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/journey-planning/getting-to-our-stations/bus/	1
Ticket Information \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/tickets-passes/ticket-information/	1
Plus Bus \| Merseyrail \| Merseyrailwww.merseyrail.org/tickets-passes/daily-travel/plus-bus/	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Merseyrail

Where this issue has occurred