Home | MS Trust

Newly diagnosed | MS Trust

Staying Smart | Cognitive health and MS

About MS | MS Trust

Wellbeing and MS | MS Trust

Causes of MS | MS Trust

Care and carers | MS Trust

About the MS Trust | MS Trust

Get involved | MS Trust

Health professionals | MS Trust

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

December 2025

November 2025

Multiple Sclerosis Trust

Title / URL	Issues
Home \| MS Trustmstrust.org.uk/	1
Newly diagnosed \| MS Trustmstrust.org.uk/information-support/newly-diagnosed	1
Staying Smart \| Cognitive health and MSmstrust.org.uk/information-support/staying-smart	1
About MS \| MS Trustmstrust.org.uk/information-support/about-ms	1
Wellbeing and MS \| MS Trustmstrust.org.uk/information-support/wellbeing-ms	1
Causes of MS \| MS Trustmstrust.org.uk/information-support/about-ms/causes-ms	1
Care and carers \| MS Trustmstrust.org.uk/information-support/care-and-carers	1
About the MS Trust \| MS Trustmstrust.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us	1
Get involved \| MS Trustmstrust.org.uk/get-involved	1
Health professionals \| MS Trustmstrust.org.uk/health-professionals	1

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

Multiple Sclerosis Trust

Where this issue has occurred