County News | Thurston County

Events | Thurston County

Doing Business in Thurston County | Thurston County

Olympic Model Railroad Society Meeting | Thurston County

GeoData Center | Thurston County

Homepage | Thurston County

Passports and Passport Photos | Thurston County

Page not found | Thurston County

Website Use Disclaimer | Thurston County

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

December 2025

November 2025

Thurston County, Washington

	Title / URL	Issues
	County News \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/news	4
	Events \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/events-list	2
	Events \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/events	2
	Doing Business in Thurston County \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/doing-business-thurston-county	1
	Olympic Model Railroad Society Meeting \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/events/olympic-model-railroad-society-meeting-4	1
	GeoData Center \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/geodata-center	1
	Homepage \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/	1
	Passports and Passport Photos \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/auditor/passports-and-passport-photos	1
	Page not found \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/invented-url-for-404-page	1
	Website Use Disclaimer \| Thurston Countywww.thurstoncountywa.gov/website-use-disclaimer	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Thurston County, Washington

Where this issue has occurred