Mastering Accessibility: ARIA Labels in HubSpot Forms and Menus

Hey ESHOPMAN community! As your go-to experts for all things HubSpot and e-commerce, we're always digging into the nitty-gritty details that make your online presence shine. Today, we're tackling a topic that's often overlooked but critically important: web accessibility, specifically focusing on ARIA labels within HubSpot forms and menus. For any business looking to expand its digital reach and ensure an inclusive experience, accessibility isn't just a compliance checkbox—it's a fundamental aspect of good user experience and a powerful driver for growth, especially for e-commerce storefronts built on HubSpot.

We recently saw a fantastic discussion pop up in the HubSpot Community about this very challenge. It highlighted a common pain point for developers and marketers alike: how do you add specific ARIA attributes when HubSpot dynamically generates much of your site's HTML? This is a crucial question for anyone striving for WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliance and ensuring their site is usable by everyone, including those who rely on assistive technologies.

The Accessibility Challenge: Forms and Menus in HubSpot

The original poster in the community thread was working on an accessibility project, aiming to make an existing HubSpot site compliant. Their audit flagged an issue with HubSpot form fields: input elements with only a placeholder attribute, but without an aria-assigned role, weren't allowed. This is a crucial point for screen readers and assistive technologies to understand the purpose of an input field. Without proper ARIA attributes, users with visual impairments might struggle to understand what information is expected in a form field, leading to frustration and abandonment.

They shared their HubL code for a blog subscription form:

          {% blog_subscribe "blog_subscription_form" select_blog="default", no_title=true, resp, label="Blog Email Subscription", overrideable=False, no_wrapper=true %}
        

The problem? The actual tag isn't directly in this HubL code; it's added by HubSpot via the {% blog_subscribe %} command. So, the core question became: how do you add aria-labelledby or aria-label to something you don't directly control in your template?

Addressing Accessibility for HubSpot Forms

HubSpot's dynamic rendering of forms, while convenient, can present challenges for granular accessibility control. Here's how ESHOPMAN recommends approaching this:

• Leverage HubSpot Form Settings: For standard HubSpot forms (not {% blog_subscribe %}), you can often add custom CSS classes or even custom fields that might be used to generate labels. However, direct ARIA attribute injection into the input fields themselves isn't always straightforward from the UI.
• Custom Form Modules: For developers, building a custom module for your forms offers the highest degree of control. Instead of relying solely on the {% blog_subscribe %} or standard HubSpot form embed, you can construct your form HTML directly within a custom module. This allows you to explicitly add elements associated with your fields using the for attribute, and then add any necessary ARIA attributes like aria-describedby or aria-required. This is the most robust solution for full WCAG compliance.
• Post-Render JavaScript Manipulation (Use with Caution): If direct control isn't feasible, a JavaScript solution can be implemented to add ARIA attributes after the HubSpot form has rendered. This involves selecting the target input fields (e.g., by their ID or class) and using JavaScript to add the desired attributes.

  While effective, this method should be used judiciously. It's a client-side fix and relies on the JavaScript executing correctly. Server-side rendering with proper HTML semantics is always preferred.

Accessibility for HubSpot Navigation Menus

The original poster then pointed out a similar issue with HubSpot menus. They showed their HubL code for a footer menu:

      {% menu "footer_menu"
          site_map_name="Footer - 2022",
          overrideable=False,
          root_type="site_root",
          flyouts="false",
          max_levels="2",
          flow="horizontal",
          label="Footer Links Menu"
        %}
    

The good news, as seen in the live website code shared by the original poster, is that HubSpot often adds some accessibility attributes automatically to its menu modules. For instance, the live output included role="navigation" and aria-label="Navigation Menu" on the main menu wrapper. This is a positive step, informing screen readers that the element is a navigation region.

However, the HubL code specified label="Footer Links Menu", but the live output defaulted to aria-label="Navigation Menu". This indicates that while HubSpot provides a base level of accessibility, developers might want more specific control over these labels.

Enhancing Menu Accessibility

For menus, ESHOPMAN recommends:

• Utilize the label Attribute: The label attribute in the {% menu %} HubL tag should ideally translate to the aria-label on the rendered navigation. If it doesn't, or if you need more dynamic control, consider the following.
• Custom Menu Modules: Similar to forms, a custom menu module built with HubL and HTML allows you to define the entire navigation structure, including