Proposed Form field has non-empty accessible name

Description

This rule checks that each form field element has a non-empty accessible name.

Applicability

This rule applies to any element that is included in the accessibility tree, and that has one of the following semantic roles: checkbox, combobox (select elements), listbox, menuitemcheckbox, menuitemradio, radio, searchbox, slider, spinbutton, switch, textbox.

Expectation

Each target element has an accessible name that is not empty ("").

Background

The list of roles in the applicability is derived by taking all the roles from WAI-ARIA Specifications that:

• have semantic roles that inherit from the input, menuitem or select role; and
• are form field controls (this notably excludes menu, option or tree).

This rule does not test other control-like roles such as button and menuitem, because these do not inherit from input or select. These should be tested separately.

This rule does not map to 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions as there are sufficient techniques within 3.3.2 that don’t need the elements to have an accessible name. For example “G131: Providing descriptive labels” AND “G162: Positioning labels to maximize predictability of relationships” would be sufficient.

Assumptions

There are no assumptions.

Accessibility Support

• Several assistive technologies have a functionality to list all form fields on a page, including the disabled ones. Therefore this rule is still applicable to disabled form fields. If an assistive technology consistently ignores disabled form fields in all its interactions, then it is possible to have a disabled form field with no accessible name without creating accessibility issues for the user.
• Implementation of Presentational Roles Conflict Resolution varies from one browser or assistive technology to another. Depending on this, some elements can have one of the applicable semantic roles and fail this rule with some technology but users of other technologies would not experience any accessibility issue.

Bibliography

• Understanding Success Criterion 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value
• H91: Using HTML form controls and links
• H44: Using label elements to associate text labels with form controls
• H65: Using the title attribute to identify form controls when the label element cannot be used

Accessibility Requirements Mapping

• 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)

  • Learn more about 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
  • Required for conformance to WCAG 2.0 and later on level A and higher.
  • Outcome mapping:
    • Any failed outcomes: success criterion is not satisfied
    • All passed outcomes: success criterion needs further testing
    • An inapplicable outcome: success criterion needs further testing

Secondary Requirements

This rule is related to the following accessibility requirements, but was not designed to test this requirements directly. These secondary requirements can either be stricter than the rule requires, or may be satisfied in ways not tested by the rule:

• 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A): This success criterion is more strict than this rule. This is because 1.3.1 Info and Relationship requires that information, structure, and relationships conveyed through presentation can be programmatically determined or are available in text, while 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value only requires an accessible name.
• 2.5.3 Label in Name (Level A): This success criterion is more strict than this rule. This is because 2.5.3 Label in Name requires that if a label is visible, the accessible name contains the label that is presented visually, while 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value only requires an accessible name.

Input Aspects

The following aspects are required in using this rule.

• Accessibility Tree
• CSS styling
• DOM Tree

Test Cases

Passed

Passed Example 1

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This input element has an accessible name because of its programmatic label.

<label>
	first name
	<input />
</label>

Passed Example 2

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This input element has an accessible name because of its aria-label attribute.

<div>last name</div>
<input aria-label="last name" disabled />

Passed Example 3

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This select element has an accessible name because of its programmatic label.

<label for="country">Country</label>
<select id="country">
	<option>England</option>
	<option>Scotland</option>
	<option>Wales</option>
	<option>Northern Ireland</option>
</select>

Passed Example 4

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This textarea element has an accessible name because of its aria-labelledby attribute.

<div id="country">Country</div>
<textarea aria-labelledby="country"></textarea>

Passed Example 5

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This input element has an accessible name because of its placeholder attribute.

Note: While the placeholder attribute is sufficient to provide an accessible name, a visible label that does not disappear when a user starts to enter data is still required for success criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions.

<input placeholder="Your search query" /> <button type="submit">search</button>

Passed Example 6

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This semantic combobox element has an accessible name because of its aria-label attribute.

<div>Country</div>
<div aria-label="country" role="combobox" aria-disabled="true">England</div>

Passed Example 7

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This semantic checkbox element has the text content as its accessible name.

<div role="checkbox">I agree to the terms and conditions.</div>

Passed Example 8

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These menuitemcheckbox elements have an accessible name because its aria-labelledby attribute references a span element.

<p id="dip">Add one or more dip:</p>
<div role="menu" aria-labelledby="dip">
	<input type="checkbox" role="menuitemcheckbox" aria-labelledby="ketchup" /><span id="ketchup" aria-hidden="true"
		>Ketchup</span
	><br />
	<input type="checkbox" role="menuitemcheckbox" aria-labelledby="mayonnaise" /><span id="mayonnaise" aria-hidden="true"
		>Mayonnaise</span
	>
</div>

Failed

Failed Example 1

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This input element does not have an attribute that gives an accessible name to it.

<div>last name</div>
<input />

Failed Example 2

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This disabled input element does not have an attribute that gives an accessible name to it.

<input disabled />

Failed Example 3

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This input element has an empty ("") accessible name because the space in the aria-label attribute value is trimmed.

<input aria-label=" " />

Failed Example 4

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This select element has an empty ("") accessible name because the div has no text content.

<div id="country"></div>
<select aria-labelledby="country">
	<option>England</option>
</select>

Failed Example 5

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This semantic textbox element has an empty ("") accessible name. The parent label element does not give it an accessible name, this only works for native form fields.

<label>
	first name
	<div role="textbox"></div>
</label>

Failed Example 6

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This semantic textbox element has an empty ("") accessible name. The label element does not give it an accessible name, this only works for native form fields.

<label for="firstname">first name</label>
<div role="textbox" id="firstname"></div>

Failed Example 7

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This semantic textbox element has an empty ("") accessible name. The text content of the element serves as its value, not as an accessible name.

<div role="textbox">first name</div>

Failed Example 8

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These menuitemcheckbox elements do not have an accessible name.

<p id="dip">Add one or more dip:</p>
<div role="menu" aria-labelledby="dip">
	<input type="checkbox" role="menuitemcheckbox" /><span aria-hidden="true">Ketchup</span><br />
	<input type="checkbox" role="menuitemcheckbox" /><span aria-hidden="true">Mayonnaise</span>
</div>

Inapplicable

Inapplicable Example 1

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This input element is not included in the accessibility tree because of its style attribute which sets display to none.

<input aria-label="firstname" style="display:none;" />

Inapplicable Example 2

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This input element is not included in the accessibility tree because of its aria-hidden attribute.

<input disabled aria-hidden="true" aria-label="firstname" />

Inapplicable Example 3

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This select element is not included in the accessibility tree because it is disabled and has a role attribute value of “none”.

<select role="none" disabled>
	<option value="volvo">Volvo</option>
	<option value="saab">Saab</option>
	<option value="opel">Opel</option>
</select>

Glossary

Accessible Name

The accessible name is the programmatically determined name of a user interface element that is included in the accessibility tree.

The accessible name is calculated using the accessible name and description computation.

For native markup languages, such as HTML and SVG, additional information on how to calculate the accessible name can be found in HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0, Accessible Name and Description Computation (working draft) and SVG Accessibility API Mappings, Name and Description (working draft).

For more details, see examples of accessible name.

Note: As per the accessible name and description computation, each element always has an accessible name. When no accessible name is provided, the element will nonetheless be assigned an empty ("") one.

Note: As per the accessible name and description computation, accessible names are flat string trimmed of leading and trailing whitespace. Notably, it is not possible for a non-empty accessible name to be composed only of whitespace since these must be trimmed.

Attribute value

The attribute value of a content attribute set on an HTML element is the value that the attribute gets after being parsed and computed according to specifications. It may differ from the value that is actually written in the HTML code due to trimming whitespace or non-digits characters, default values, or case-insensitivity.

Some notable case of attribute value, among others:

• For enumerated attributes, the attribute value is either the state of the attribute, or the keyword that maps to it; even for the default states. Thus <input type="image" /> has an attribute value of either Image Button (the state) or image (the keyword mapping to it), both formulations having the same meaning; similarly, “an input element with a type attribute value of Text” can be either <input type="text" />, <input /> (missing value default), or <input type="invalid" /> (invalid value default).
• For boolean attributes, the attribute value is true when the attribute is present and false otherwise. Thus <button disabled>, <button disabled="disabled"> and <button disabled=""> all have a disabled attribute value of true.
• For attributes whose value is used in a case-insensitive context, the attribute value is the lowercase version of the value written in the HTML code.
• For attributes that accept numbers, the attribute value is the result of parsing the value written in the HTML code according to the rules for parsing this kind of number.
• For attributes that accept sets of tokens, whether space separated or comma separated, the attribute value is the set of tokens obtained after parsing the set and, depending on the case, converting its items to lowercase (if the set is used in a case-insensitive context).
• For aria-* attributes, the attribute value is computed as indicated in the WAI-ARIA specification and the HTML Accessibility API Mappings.

This list is not exhaustive, and only serves as an illustration for some of the most common cases.

The attribute value of an IDL attribute is the value returned on getting it. Note that when an IDL attribute reflects a content attribute, they have the same attribute value.

Explicit Semantic Role

The explicit semantic role of an element is determined by its role attribute (if any).

The role attribute takes a list of tokens. The explicit semantic role is the first valid role in this list. The valid roles are all non-abstract roles from WAI-ARIA Specifications. If the element has no role attribute, or if it has one with no valid role, then this element has no explicit semantic role.

Other roles may be added as they become available. Not all roles will be supported in all assistive technologies. Testers are encouraged to adjust which roles are allowed according to the accessibility support base line. For the purposes of executing test cases in all rules, it should be assumed that all roles are supported by assistive technologies so that none of the roles fail due to lack of accessibility support.

Focusable

An element is focusable if one or both of the following are true:

• the element is part of sequential focus navigation; or
• the element has a tabindex value that is not null.

Exception: Elements that lose focus and do not regain focus during a period of up to 1 second after gaining focus, without the user interacting with the page the element is on, are not considered focusable.

Notes:

• The 1 second time span is an arbitrary limit which is not included in WCAG. Given that scripts can manage the focus state of elements, testing the focusability of an element consistently would be impractical without a time limit.
• The tabindex value of an element is the value of the tabindex attribute parsed using the rules for parsing integers. For the tabindex value to be different from null, it needs to be parsed without errors.

Implicit Semantic Role

The implicit semantic role of an element is a pre-defined value given by the host language which depends on the element and its ancestors.

Implicit roles for HTML and SVG, are documented in the HTML accessibility API mappings (working draft) and the SVG accessibility API mappings (working draft).

Included in the accessibility tree

Elements included in the accessibility tree of platform specific accessibility APIs are exposed to assistive technologies. This allows users of assistive technology to access the elements in a way that meets the requirements of the individual user.

The general rules for when elements are included in the accessibility tree are defined in the core accessibility API mappings. For native markup languages, such as HTML and SVG, additional rules for when elements are included in the accessibility tree can be found in the HTML accessibility API mappings (working draft) and the SVG accessibility API mappings (working draft).

For more details, see examples of included in the accessibility tree.

Programmatically hidden elements are removed from the accessibility tree. However, some browsers will leave focusable elements with an aria-hidden attribute set to true in the accessibility tree. Because they are hidden, these elements are considered not included in the accessibility tree. This may cause confusion for users of assistive technologies because they may still be able to interact with these focusable elements using sequential keyboard navigation, even though the element should not be included in the accessibility tree.

Marked as decorative

An element is marked as decorative if one or more of the following conditions is true:

• it has an explicit role of none or presentation; or
• it is an img element with an alt attribute whose value is the empty string (alt=""), and with no explicit role.

Elements are marked as decorative as a way to convey the intention of the author that they are pure decoration. It is different from the element actually being pure decoration as authors may make mistakes. It is different from the element being effectively ignored by assistive technologies as rules such as presentational roles conflict resolution may overwrite this intention.

Elements can also be ignored by assistive technologies if they are programmatically hidden. This is different from marking the element as decorative and does not convey the same intention. Notably, being programmatically hidden may change as users interact with the page (showing and hiding elements) while being marked as decorative should stay the same through all states of the page.

Outcome

A conclusion that comes from evaluating an ACT Rule on a test subject or one of its constituent test target. An outcome can be one of the five following types:

• Inapplicable: No part of the test subject matches the applicability
• Passed: A test target meets all expectations
• Failed: A test target does not meet all expectations
• cantTell: Whether the rule is applicable, or not all expectations were met could not be fully determined by the tester.
• Untested: The tester has not attempted to evaluate the test subject.

Note: A rule has one passed or failed outcome for every test target. When a tester evaluates a test target it can also be reported as cantTell if the rule cannot be tested in its entirety. For example, when applicability was automated, but the expectations have to be evaluated manually.

When there are no test targets the rule has one inapplicable outcome. If the tester is unable to determine whether there are test targets there will be one cantTell outcome. And when no evaluation has occurred the test target has one untested outcome. This means that each test subject always has one or more outcomes.

Outcomes used in ACT Rules can be expressed using the outcome property of the [EARL10-Schema][].

Programmatic Label

Element L is a programmatic label of target element T if either:

• T is a labeled control of L; or
• L is referenced by ID in the aria-labelledby attribute of T.

For more details, see examples of programmatic label.

Note: a given element may have more than one programmatic label.

Programmatically Hidden

An HTML element is programmatically hidden if either it has a computed CSS property visibility whose value is not visible; or at least one of the following is true for any of its inclusive ancestors in the flat tree:

• has a computed CSS property display of none; or
• has an aria-hidden attribute set to true

Note: Contrary to the other conditions, the visibility CSS property may be reverted by descendants.

Note: The HTML standard suggests setting the CSS display property to none for elements with the hidden attribute. While not required by HTML, all modern browsers follow this suggestion. Because of this the hidden attribute is not used in this definition. In browsers that use this suggestion, overriding the CSS display property can reveal elements with the hidden attribute.

Semantic Role

The semantic role of an element is determined by the first of these cases that applies:

1. Conflict If the element is marked as decorative, but the element is included in the accessibility tree; or would be included in the accessibility tree when it is not programmatically hidden, then its semantic role is its implicit role.
2. Explicit If the element has an explicit role, then its semantic role is its explicit role.
3. Implicit The semantic role of the element is its implicit role.

This definition can be used in expressions such as “semantic button” meaning any element with a semantic role of button.

Visible

Content perceivable through sight.

Content is considered visible if making it fully transparent would result in a difference in the pixels rendered for any part of the document that is currently within the viewport or can be brought into the viewport via scrolling.

Content is defined in WCAG.

For more details, see examples of visible.

WAI-ARIA specifications

The WAI ARIA Specifications group both the WAI ARIA W3C Recommendation and ARIA modules, namely:

• Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.2
• WAI-ARIA Graphics Module 1.0
• Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0

Note: depending on the type of content being evaluated, part of the specifications might be irrelevant and should be ignored.

Rule Versions

1. Latest version, 31 August 2023 (compare)
   • Update to reference ARIA 1.2
   • Remove outdated accessibility support info
   • Editorial clarifications of the background
   • New examples using menuitemcheckbox role
2. Previous version, 23 June 2022 (compare)
   • Account for focus redirects in "focusable" definition
   • Let hidden attribute be handled by display:none in "programmatically hidden" definition
3. Previous version, 28 January 2022

Implementations

This section is not part of the official rule. It is populated dynamically and not accounted for in the change history or the last modified date.

Implementation	Type	Consistency	Report
Alfa (fully automated) 0.80.0	Automated tool	Consistent
Alfa (semi-automated) 0.80.0	Semi-automated tool	Consistent
Axe DevTools Pro 4.37.1	Semi-automated tool	Consistent
Axe-core 4.8.3	Automated tool	Consistent
Equal Access Accessibility Checker 3.1.42-rc.0	Automated tool	Consistent
QualWeb 3.0.0	Automated tool	Consistent
SortSite 6.45	Automated tool	Consistent
Total Validator 17.4.0	Linter	Consistent
Total Validator (+Browser) 17.4.0	Automated tool	Consistent

Useful Links

• Github issues related to this rule
• Open a new issue
• Propose a change to the rule