Accessibility fix guide
Form Error Identification Missing
Form validation errors are not programmatically associated with their fields or not announced to screen reader users.
Issue ID: A11Y-FORM-ERROR-001
Severity: moderate
Impact: Med
Effort: M
Use this article when
- You need deeper remediation guidance than the issue card can show.
- You want CMS-specific steps before handing the fix to a developer.
- You want a repeatable re-check path after shipping the change.
What this issue is
Form validation errors are not programmatically associated with their fields or not announced to screen reader users.
Why it matters
Form validation errors are not programmatically associated with their fields or not announced to screen reader users. This affects usability, compliance risk, and how many visitors can successfully consume the page.
How we detect it
- FreeSiteAudit flags this issue when the rule for A11Y-FORM-ERROR-001 fails and the page evidence points to Dom body.
- You can usually confirm this by checking the page source or the relevant page settings inside your CMS.
Evidence examples
Check the affected page source, rendered output, or relevant CMS setting to confirm the missing or incorrect element.
How to fix it
- 1Use aria-describedby to link error messages to their form fields
- 2Use aria-invalid="true" on fields with errors
- 3Announce errors using aria-live regions or focus management
How to re-check it
- Submit a form with errors and confirm a screen reader announces each error
Related tools
This issue is best verified with the full FreeSiteAudit crawl rather than a single-point mini tool.