Events | UTHealth Houston Alumni

Office of Postdoctoral Affairs - UTHealth Houston

Academic Administration - UTHealth Houston

Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences | UTHealth Houston

UTHealth Houston Alumni

Research - UTHealth Houston News - UTHealth Houston

UTHealth Houston University Housing

Giving at UTHealth Houston

Alumni Stories | UTHealth Houston Alumni

Office of Technology Management - UTHealth Houston

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

University of Texas Health Science Center Houston

	Title / URL	Issues
	Events \| UTHealth Houston Alumniwww.uth.edu/alumni/events	2
	Office of Postdoctoral Affairs - UTHealth Houstonwww.uth.edu/postdocs/	1
	Academic Administration - UTHealth Houstonwww.uth.edu/academic-administration/	1
	Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences \| UTHealth Houstonwww.uth.edu/ccts/	1
	UTHealth Houston Alumniwww.uth.edu/alumni/	1
	Research - UTHealth Houston News - UTHealth Houstonwww.uth.edu/news/research	1
	UTHealth Houston University Housingwww.uth.edu/housing/	1
	Giving at UTHealth Houstonwww.uth.edu/giving/	1
	Alumni Stories \| UTHealth Houston Alumniwww.uth.edu/alumni/stories/	1
	Office of Technology Management - UTHealth Houstonwww.uth.edu/otm/	1

Ensure form controls have labels

University of Texas Health Science Center Houston

Where this issue has occurred