Level A · WCAG 2.0
3.3.2 Labels or Instructions
Fields that need input have labels or instructions.
Partly automated Some failures are detectable, others need judgement.
How it fails in practice
A search field labelled only by a magnifying glass icon. A date field with no hint about format that rejects 05/11/2026 without saying why.
How to fix it
Give every field a real label. A placeholder is not a label — it disappears exactly when the user needs it.
At a glance
- Level
- Level A — the minimum. Failing one of these usually makes something impossible rather than merely hard.
- Principle
- Understandable
- Guideline
- 3.3 Input Assistance
- Added in
- WCAG 2.0
- EN 301 549
- 9.3.3.2
- Automated check
- Partly automated
Partly automated
How far an automated check gets
A tool finds some failures here and cannot see the rest. A clean automated result means the checks that exist found nothing — not that the criterion is met. This is the gap that makes a green scan look like an accessible site, and it is where our agents and a human reviewer do the remaining work.
An unlabelled field is found automatically.
Related criteria
Other criteria under the same guideline.
Find out which criteria your site fails
We scan up to 100 pages against WCAG 2.2 AA, run the agent protocol on one key journey and send you the report — free, once, no strings.