First time visit: View without clicking anything

Home | Olin College of Engineering

About | Olin College of Engineering

Admission + Financial Aid | Olin College of Engineering

Visit | Olin College of Engineering

Alumni | Olin College of Engineering

Student Life | Olin College of Engineering

Give Now | Olin College of Engineering

Academic Support | Olin College of Engineering

Engineering Capstones | Olin College of Engineering

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

October 2025

September 2025

Olin College of Engineering

Title / URL	Issues
First time visit: View without clicking anythingolin.edu/	9
Home \| Olin College of Engineeringolin.edu/	9
About \| Olin College of Engineeringolin.edu/about	3
Admission + Financial Aid \| Olin College of Engineeringolin.edu/admission	3
Visit \| Olin College of Engineeringolin.edu/admission/visit	2
Alumni \| Olin College of Engineeringolin.edu/about/alumni	1
Student Life \| Olin College of Engineeringolin.edu/student-life	1
Give Now \| Olin College of Engineeringolin.edu/give	1
Academic Support \| Olin College of Engineeringolin.edu/academics/academic-support	1
Engineering Capstones \| Olin College of Engineeringolin.edu/academics/capstone-programs	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Olin College of Engineering

Where this issue has occurred