Jobs, careers and skills

Winter services and advice

Privacy policy

Volunteering

Health column

Business support

Search for a job

Wigan Council - Residents

Council homes

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

August 2025

July 2025

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

	Title / URL	Issues
	Jobs, careers and skillswww.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Jobs-Careers/index.aspx	1
	Winter services and advicewww.wigan.gov.uk/Council/Winter/Winter-Services.aspx	1
	A-Zwww.wigan.gov.uk/A-Z.aspx?WiganAtoZ_AtoZLetter=P	1
	Privacy policywww.wigan.gov.uk/SitePages/PrivacyPolicy.aspx	1
	Volunteeringwww.wigan.gov.uk/Council/Volunteering/index.aspx	1
	Health columnwww.wigan.gov.uk/News/Health-column/Health-column.aspx	1
	Business supportwww.wigan.gov.uk/Business/Business-Support/index.aspx	1
	Search for a jobwww.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Jobs-Careers/Search-for-a-job.aspx	1
	Wigan Council - Residentswww.wigan.gov.uk/index.aspx	1
	Council homeswww.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Housing/Council-homes/index.aspx	1

Ensure form controls have labels

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Where this issue has occurred