control-has-associated-label

Enforce that a control (an interactive element) has a text label.

There are two supported ways to supply a control with a text label:

  • Provide text content inside the element.
  • Use the aria-label attribute on the element, with a text value.
  • Use the aria-labelledby attribute on the element, and point the IDREF value to an element with an accessible label.
  • Alternatively, with an img tag, you may use the alt attribute to supply a text description of the image.

The rule is permissive in the sense that it will assume that expressions will eventually provide a label. So an element like this will pass.

<button type="button">{maybeSomethingThatContainsALabel}</button>

How do I resolve this error?

Case: I have a simple button that requires a label.

Provide text content in the button element.

<button type="button">Save</button>

Case: I have an icon button and I don't want visible text.

Use the aria-label attribute and provide the text label as the value.

<button type="button" aria-label="Save" class="icon-save" />

Case: The label for my element is already located on the page and I don't want to repeat the text in my source code.

Use the aria-labelledby attribute and point the IDREF value to an element with an accessible label.

<div id="js_1">Comment</div>
<textarea aria-labelledby="js_1"></textarea>

Case: My label and input components are custom components, but I still want to require that they have an accessible text label.

You can configure the rule to be aware of your custom components. Refer to the Rule Details below.

<CustomInput label="Surname" type="text" value={value} />

Rule details

This rule takes one optional object argument of type object:

{
  "rules": {
    "jsx-a11y/control-has-associated-label": [ 2, {
      "labelAttributes": ["label"],
      "controlComponents": ["CustomComponent"],
      "ignoreElements": [
        "audio",
        "canvas",
        "embed",
        "input",
        "textarea",
        "tr",
        "video",
      ],
      "ignoreRoles": [
        "grid",
        "listbox",
        "menu",
        "menubar",
        "radiogroup",
        "row",
        "tablist",
        "toolbar",
        "tree",
        "treegrid",
      ],
      "depth": 3,
    }],
  }
}
  • labelAttributes is a list of attributes to check on the control component and its children for a label. Use this if you have a custom component that uses a string passed on a prop to render an HTML label, for example.
  • controlComponents is a list of custom React Components names that will render down to an interactive element.
  • ignoreElements is an array of elements that should not be considered control (interactive) elements and therefore they do not require a text label.
  • ignoreRoles is an array of ARIA roles that should not be considered control (interactive) roles and therefore they do not require a text label.
  • depth (default 2, max 25) is an integer that determines how deep within a JSXElement the rule should look for text content or an element with a label to determine if the interactive element will have an accessible label.

Succeed

<button type="button" aria-label="Save" class="icon-save" />

Fail

<button type="button" class="icon-save" />