Help and advice | Thames Water

Regulation and plans | About us | Thames Water

Page not found | Thames Water

Contact us | How to contact Thames Water customer services

Water meters | Help and advice | Thames Water

Thames Water - The UK’s largest water and wastewater company

Governance and structure | About us | Thames Water

Cookies | Legal services | Thames Water

Newsroom and latest stories | About us | Thames Water

Get extra help | Help and advice | Thames Water

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

Thames Water

Title / URL	Issues
Help and advice \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/help	2
Regulation and plans \| About us \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/about-us/regulation	2
Page not found \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/invented-url-for-404-page	2
Contact us \| How to contact Thames Water customer serviceswww.thameswater.co.uk/contact-us	2
Water meters \| Help and advice \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/help/water-meters	2
Thames Water - The UK’s largest water and wastewater companywww.thameswater.co.uk/	2
Governance and structure \| About us \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/about-us/governance	2
Cookies \| Legal services \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/legal/cookies	2
Newsroom and latest stories \| About us \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/about-us/newsroom	2
Get extra help \| Help and advice \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/help/get-extra-help	2

Ensure form controls have labels

Thames Water

Where this issue has occurred