Clarifications to labels or instructions SC#4995
Draft
scottaohara wants to merge 5 commits intomainfrom
Draft
Conversation
AI description: Revised text for clarity and conciseness regarding the purpose of labels and instructions in forms. Enhanced explanations of how labels assist users in understanding input requirements and the importance of providing clear instructions.
✅ Deploy Preview for wcag2 ready!
To edit notification comments on pull requests, go to your Netlify project configuration. |
detlevhfischer
approved these changes
Mar 13, 2026
| will be necessary to help users understand how to fill out the input fields of a form. | ||
| </p> | ||
| <p> | ||
| Despite their moniker, form fields and controls are not limited to use within a form. They |
Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Suggested change
| Despite their moniker, form fields and controls are not limited to use within a form. They | |
| Form fields and controls are not limited to use within a form. They |
| control (such as a select-only combobox), or grouping of controls (like groupings of radios | ||
| or checkboxes), and thus further visible labels may not be necessary. However, in cases | ||
| where the labels for the choices would be ambiguous without an overarching label or instructions | ||
| for a control or group of controls, then authors would need to provide one or both for users. |
Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment.
It may not be clear enough for some readers what "one or both" refers back to - possibly better spell out?
Above I have replaced "moniker" and "overarching" since I expect these terms may be unfamiliar.
Member
Author
There was a problem hiding this comment.
i tried using those words, and imo it felt very clunky to have to repeat "labels, instructions or both".
i'll think more if this can be reworded further.
additional example added, inspired by #4977 (comment)
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
2 participants
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Closes #4977
This PR attempts to clarify expectations around when labels, instructions or both might be necessary for form fields / controls.
Key changes:
selecta visible label (as I've encountered those that feel that the wording of the current example is indicating that only the options of a select, and not the select itself, require labels. Selects can require labels as well... and this update tries to emphasize that, while also acknowledging that under certain cases, it may not be necessary