Web Accessibility | Multnomah County

About Multnomah County | Multnomah County

Language Access | Multnomah County

Employees | Multnomah County

Locating Records | Multnomah County

Marriage Licenses | Multnomah County

Pay Property Taxes | Multnomah County

Privacy Policy | Multnomah County

Volunteer at the County | Multnomah County

About Board Meetings | Multnomah County

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

March 2025

February 2025

Multnomah County, Oregon

Title / URL	Issues
Web Accessibility \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/info/web-accessibility	2
About Multnomah County \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/info/about-multnomah-county	2
Language Access \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/info/language-access	2
Employees \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/info/employees	2
Locating Records \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/services/locating-records	2
Marriage Licenses \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/services/marriage-licenses	2
Pay Property Taxes \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/services/pay-property-taxes	2
Privacy Policy \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/info/privacy-policy	2
Volunteer at the County \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/services/volunteer-county	2
About Board Meetings \| Multnomah Countymultco.us/info/about-board-meetings	2

Ensure form controls have labels

Multnomah County, Oregon

Where this issue has occurred