News at SDState | South Dakota State University

University Wellbeing | South Dakota State University

Event Calendar | South Dakota State University

Accreditation | South Dakota State University

Graduate School | South Dakota State University

Community | South Dakota State University

Hilton M. Briggs Library | South Dakota State University

Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center | South Dakota State University

Awards and Rankings | South Dakota State University

Academics | South Dakota State University

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

South Dakota State University

Title / URL	Issues
News at SDState \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/news	2
University Wellbeing \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/university-wellbeing	1
Event Calendar \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/event-calendar	1
Accreditation \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/academics/accreditation	1
Graduate School \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/graduate-school	1
Community \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/community	1
Hilton M. Briggs Library \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/hilton-m-briggs-library	1
Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/oscar-larson-performing-arts-center	1
Awards and Rankings \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/about-us/awards-rankings	1
Academics \| South Dakota State Universitywww.sdstate.edu/academics	1

Ensure form controls have labels

South Dakota State University

Where this issue has occurred