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3.3.2 - Form control labels using non-text content #4626

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3.3.2 - Form control labels using non-text content #4626

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Update labels-or-instructions.html
giacomo-petri Sep 19, 2025
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Merge branch 'main' into giacomo-petri-3_3_2-non-text-label
patrickhlauke Oct 27, 2025
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3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions understanding/20/labels-or-instructions.html
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Expand Up @@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ <h2>Intent of Labels or Instructions</h2>
The goal is to make certain that enough information is provided for the user to accomplish
the task without undue confusion or navigation.
</p>

<p>Labels of form controls are usually text-based. In some cases, images can serve as descriptive labels without additional text.
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@mbgower mbgower Oct 17, 2025 •
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<p>Labels of form controls are usually text-based. In some cases, images can serve as descriptive labels without additional text.
<p>Labels of form controls are usually text-based. Images with appropriate text alternatives can serve as labels without additional text.

In these cases, authors should ensure that the image and its use as a label (in context) are widely understood.</p>
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Suggest merging the two sentences just into one?

Suggested change
<p>Labels of form controls are usually text-based. In some cases, images can serve as descriptive labels without additional text.
In these cases, authors should ensure that the image and its use as a label (in context) are widely understood.</p>
<p>Images (with an appropriate text alternative) can serve as descriptive labels without additional text. In these cases, authors should ensure that the image and its use as a label (in context) are widely understood.</p>

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I prefer to point out "Labels of form controls are usually text-based.".
It makes clear that using labels is the exception, and that we are talking about forms here.

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I still fundamentally disagree that we need to make any kind of "this is common, this is the exception" statement here. That seems to add some sort of judgement on our part that has no business being here. Per the actual definition of label, it's "text or other component with a text alternative". No "but mostly text" or anything else. Adding qualifiers about what's "an exception" seems inappropriate to me.

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@mbgower mbgower Oct 24, 2025 •
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I feel like this "widely understood" sentence would probably be better in Headings and Labels. Although it is goes beyond a simple discussion on descriptive text, the qualitative concepts of Headings and Labels seems like a better fit than the basic question of 3.3.2 which is: is there a label for the input?

Some task force members ended up having a long post-meeting discussion on the nuances of the telephone example in the original issue. It would be good to try to capture some of those concepts in our guidance, in some way.

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agree, the qualitative part should be moved to headings and labels (and, at a stretch, then cross-referenced from here)


<p>This success criterion does not require that labels or instructions be correctly marked up,
identified, or associated with their respective controls — that aspect is covered separately by
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