Blog - The Society of St James

What We Do - The Society of St James

Tackling Homelessness - The Society of St James

Get Help - The Society of St James

Contact Us - The Society of St James

Publications - The Society of St James

404 - Page not found - The Society of St James

Integrated Offender Management - The Society of St James

Care Homes - The Society of St James

Support Us - The Society of St James

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

May 2025

April 2025

The Society of St James

Title / URL	Issues
Blog - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/news/	6
What We Do - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/what-we-do/	6
Tackling Homelessness - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/service/homelessness/	6
Get Help - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/get-help/	6
Contact Us - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/contact-us/	6
Publications - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/publications/	6
404 - Page not found - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/invented-url-for-404-page	6
Integrated Offender Management - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/sub-service/iom/	6
Care Homes - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/carehomes/	6
Support Us - The Society of St Jamesssj.org.uk/support-us/	6

Ensure form controls have labels

The Society of St James

Where this issue has occurred