Tribunals - Courts data - Justice Data

Search

Publications reference - Justice Data

Accessibility statement - Justice Data

Terms of use, cookies and privacy - Justice Data

Criminal justice system statistics - Justice Data

Legal aid data - Justice Data

Additional data - Probation data - Justice Data

Civil courts - Courts data - Justice Data

Criminal courts - Courts data - Justice Data

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

Prisons data

Title / URL	Issues
Tribunals - Courts data - Justice Datadata.justice.gov.uk/courts/tribunals	1
Searchdata.justice.gov.uk/search	1
Publications reference - Justice Datadata.justice.gov.uk/info/publications	1
Accessibility statement - Justice Datadata.justice.gov.uk/info/accessibility	1
Terms of use, cookies and privacy - Justice Datadata.justice.gov.uk/info/terms	1
Criminal justice system statistics - Justice Datadata.justice.gov.uk/cjs-statistics	1
Legal aid data - Justice Datadata.justice.gov.uk/legalaid	1
Additional data - Probation data - Justice Datadata.justice.gov.uk/probation/additional	1
Civil courts - Courts data - Justice Datadata.justice.gov.uk/courts/civil-courts	1
Criminal courts - Courts data - Justice Datadata.justice.gov.uk/courts/criminal-courts	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Prisons data

Where this issue has occurred