Web Development
Web Developer Guidelines
Visual Design Recommendations

Checkpoint 6.5 - Core

All form fields have descriptive text labels

WCAG 1.0 Priority 2

WCAG Guideline 12. Provide context and orientation information.

People using screen readers rely on the label of the field to understand what information needs to be inputted. People who have cognitive impairments often need extra guidance when filling out a form.

Requirement

All fields have a text label description.

Recommendation

Ensure labels properly describe the field. For example, if there are several fields for an address (the street name, suburb and the postcode), they should not all be labeled "Address". Instead they should be labeled "Street name", "Suburb" and "Postcode".

The user should know just from reading the label what information is required in the field.

If you require a certain format, for example DD.MM.YY instead of DD/MM/YYYY, make sure this information is included in the label and also preceding the label.

Checking Tool

View the page in the browser to make sure all forms have appropriately descriptive labels

Information Source

The original source of this information is located on the W3C web site  (www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-TECHS/#tech-unassociated-labels)

 

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