Search results | Thames Water search | Thames Water

Document library | Wholesale | Thames Water

Submit an enquiry | Wholesale | Thames Water

Page not found | Thames Water

Contact us | Thames Water | Customer service contact

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

Apply for NAV setup | Wholesale services | Thames Water

Metering | Water services | Wholesale | Thames Water

Home improvements | Help and advice | Thames Water

Cookies | Legal services | Cookies use | 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

January 2026

December 2025

Thames Water

Title / URL	Issues
Search results \| Thames Water search \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/search	2
Document library \| Wholesale \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/wholesale/document-library	1
Submit an enquiry \| Wholesale \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/wholesale/enquiry	1
Page not found \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/invented-url-for-404-page	1
Contact us \| Thames Water \| Customer service contactwww.thameswater.co.uk/contact-us	1
Thames Water - The UK’s largest water and wastewater companywww.thameswater.co.uk/	1
Apply for NAV setup \| Wholesale services \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/wholesale/nav-setup	1
Metering \| Water services \| Wholesale \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/wholesale/metering	1
Home improvements \| Help and advice \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/help/home-improvements	1
Cookies \| Legal services \| Cookies use \| Thames Waterwww.thameswater.co.uk/legal/cookies	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Thames Water

Where this issue has occurred