MBL Community Committee | Marine Biological Laboratory

MBL Community | Marine Biological Laboratory

Scott Koerner | Marine Biological Laboratory

Alison Crawford | Marine Biological Laboratory

Samantha Cummis | Marine Biological Laboratory

Courtney Buckley | Marine Biological Laboratory

Anne W. Sylvester | Marine Biological Laboratory

Linda Hyman | Marine Biological Laboratory

Advisory Bodies | Marine Biological Laboratory

Sharon Stanczak | 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

July 2025

June 2025

Marine Biological Laboratory

	Title / URL	Issues
	MBL Community Committee \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/mbl-community/committee	2
	MBL Community \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/mbl-community	2
	Scott Koerner \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/leadership/scott-koerner	2
	Alison Crawford \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/leadership/alison-crawford	2
	Samantha Cummis \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/leadership/samantha-cummis	2
	Courtney Buckley \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/leadership/courtney-buckley	2
	Anne W. Sylvester \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/leadership/anne-w-sylvester	2
	Linda Hyman \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/leadership/linda-hyman	2
	Advisory Bodies \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/advisory-bodies	2
	Sharon Stanczak \| Marine Biological Laboratorywww.mbl.edu/about/leadership/sharon-stanczak	2

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

Marine Biological Laboratory

Where this issue has occurred