News and opinion | NSPCC

Keeping children safe in the home | NSPCC

Search | NSPCC

Charity runs | NSPCC

What we do | NSPCC

Contact us | NSPCC

Learn about the NSPCC: keeping children safe across the UK | NSPCC

Types of Child Abuse & How to Prevent Them | NSPCC

Donate to Charity Online | Give to NSPCC today | NSPCC

Ways to give | NSPCC

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

May 2025

April 2025

NSPCC

Title / URL	Issues
News and opinion \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/news-opinion/	2
Keeping children safe in the home \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/in-the-home/	2
Search \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/search/	2
Charity runs \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/charity-events/charity-runs/	2
What we do \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/	2
Contact us \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/	2
Learn about the NSPCC: keeping children safe across the UK \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/	2
Types of Child Abuse & How to Prevent Them \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/	2
Donate to Charity Online \| Give to NSPCC today \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/support-us/ways-to-give/donate/	2
Ways to give \| NSPCCwww.nspcc.org.uk/support-us/ways-to-give/	2

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

NSPCC

Where this issue has occurred