If you try to validate a Drupal site using an automated accessibility validation tool you will get two kinds of errors related to the search box and advanced search form.

1. WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 12.4: Associate labels explicitly with their controls"

2. WCAG 1.0 checkpoint 10.4: include default place-holding characters in edit boxes and text areas

To solve this issues you need to modify these files:

• Modules/search.module
• Modules/node.module
• The css of your theme (optional)

Modifying the basic search box

The solution for the label element mising is trivial. The label is missing because Drupal place the label element only if is set the #tile in the form array, so you must change function search_box in search module inserting the #title:

function search_box($form_id = 'search_theme_form') {
// Use search_keys instead of keys to avoid ID conflicts with the search block.
$form[$form_id .'_keys'] = array(
'#title' => t('Search this site'),
'#type' => 'textfield',
'#size' => 15,
'#default_value' => '',
'#attributes' => array('title' => t('Enter the terms you wish to search for.')),


To be continued...