Home/ Questions/Q 64141
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-10T18:44:36+00:00

Alright, I know how the fieldset / legend works out in HTML. Say you

  • 0

Alright, I know how the fieldset/legend works out in HTML. Say you have a form with some fields:

<form>     <fieldset>         <legend>legend</legend>         <input name='input1' />     </fieldset> </form>

What should I use the legend for? It’s being displayed as a title, but isn’t a legend semantically an explanation of the contents? In my view, preferably you’d do something like this:

<form>     <fieldset>         <legend>* = required</legend>         <label for='input1'>input 1 *</label><input id='input1' name='input1' />     </fieldset> </form>

But that doesn’t really work out with how fieldsets are rendered. Is this just a ambigious naming in HTML, or is it my misunderstanding of the English word ‘legend’?

Edit: fixed some errors 😉

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Yes, the naming is ambiguous. It’s best to consider it as a caption for the fieldset.

    See the HTML spec on FIELDSET and LEGEND elements if you haven’t already:

    The LEGEND element allows authors to assign a caption to a FIELDSET. The legend improves accessibility when the FIELDSET is rendered non-visually.

    • 0