Security and Emergencies - Drinking Water Inspectorate

Help - Drinking Water Inspectorate

What's new - Drinking Water Inspectorate

What's new - Page 2 of 4 - Drinking Water Inspectorate

Publication of research report "Organophosphorus Flame Retardants – Risk to Drinking Water in England and Wales" - Drinking Water Inspectorate

Press & Media - Drinking Water Inspectorate

Contact us - Drinking Water Inspectorate

Accessibility Statement - Drinking Water Inspectorate

Water Companies - Drinking Water Inspectorate

Research Programme - Drinking Water Inspectorate

Lists (e.g., `<ul>` or `<ol>`) should only contain list items (`<li>`) as a direct descendant 
to ensure that screen readers can accurately report the amount of items contained in the list. 

## Example

In the following example, some screen readers would say this list has two items, instead of 
four: 

```html
<ul>
    <div class="some_class">
        <li>Example 1</li>
    </div>
    <div class="some_other_class">
        <li>Example 2</li>
        <li>Example 3</li>
        <li>Example 4</li>
    </div>
</ul>
```

To fix this, you would need to remove the `<div class="some_class">` and 
`<div class="some_other_class>` elements and ensure only `<li>` list items remain.

## Further reading

The [formal specification for the list element](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/ul)
shows what is and is not permitted inside an `<ul>` and `<ol>`.

See [Technique H88](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H88.html) for more information.

list-not-following-semantics

June 2025

May 2025

Drinking Water Inspectorate

Title / URL	Issues
Security and Emergencies - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/semd/	1
Help - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/help/	1
What's new - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/whats-new/	1
What's new - Page 2 of 4 - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/whats-new/page/2/	1
Publication of research report "Organophosphorus Flame Retardants – Risk to Drinking Water in England and Wales" - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/opfr/	1
Press & Media - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/press-media/	1
Contact us - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/what-we-do/contact-us/	1
Accessibility Statement - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/accessibility-statement/	1
Water Companies - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/water-companies/	1
Research Programme - Drinking Water Inspectoratewww.dwi.gov.uk/research/research-programme/	1

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

Drinking Water Inspectorate

Where this issue has occurred