University of Chicago | Marine Biological Laboratory

Seeing Life Exhibit | Marine Biological Laboratory

MBL Community | Marine Biological Laboratory

MBL Society | Marine Biological Laboratory

Contact HR | Marine Biological Laboratory

Our Community | Marine Biological Laboratory

Staff Toolbox | Marine Biological Laboratory

Advisory Bodies | Marine Biological Laboratory

MBL Community Committee | Marine Biological Laboratory

Legacy of Leadership | Marine Biological Laboratory

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

October 2025

September 2025

Marine Biological Laboratory

Title / URL	Issues
University of Chicago \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/university-chicago	2
Seeing Life Exhibit \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/history-archives/seeing-life-exhibit	2
MBL Community \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/mbl-community	2
MBL Society \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/advisory-bodies/mbl-society	2
Contact HR \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/careers-internships/contact-hr	2
Our Community \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/careers-internships/our-community	2
Staff Toolbox \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/careers-internships/staff-toolbox	2
Advisory Bodies \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/advisory-bodies	2
MBL Community Committee \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/mbl-community/committee	2
Legacy of Leadership \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/history-archives/legacy-leadership	2

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

Marine Biological Laboratory

Where this issue has occurred