The Story Lab at Olin | Olin College of Engineering

Home | Olin College of Engineering

First time visit: View without clicking anything

About Our Curriculum | Olin College of Engineering

Sketch Model | Olin College of Engineering

Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship (ADE) | Olin College of Engineering

Admission + Financial Aid | Olin College of Engineering

Impact + Research | Olin College of Engineering

About | Olin College of Engineering

SCOPE (Senior Capstone Program in Engineering) | 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

June 2025

May 2025

Olin College of Engineering

Title / URL	Issues
The Story Lab at Olin \| Olin College of Engineeringwww.olin.edu/thestorylab	12
Home \| Olin College of Engineeringwww.olin.edu/	7
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.olin.edu/	7
About Our Curriculum \| Olin College of Engineeringwww.olin.edu/academics/curriculum	6
Sketch Model \| Olin College of Engineeringwww.olin.edu/sketchmodel	3
Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship (ADE) \| Olin College of Engineeringwww.olin.edu/ADE	2
Admission + Financial Aid \| Olin College of Engineeringwww.olin.edu/admission	2
Impact + Research \| Olin College of Engineeringwww.olin.edu/impact-research	2
About \| Olin College of Engineeringwww.olin.edu/about	2
SCOPE (Senior Capstone Program in Engineering) \| Olin College of Engineeringwww.olin.edu/impact-research/scope	2

Ensure form controls have labels

Olin College of Engineering

Where this issue has occurred