Office of Student Success Services | SMCM

Page not found | SMCM

LEAD – Academics | SMCM

How to Apply – Office of Admission | SMCM

Learn More about St. Mary’s College of Maryland – Office of Admission | SMCM

The Office of Information Technology | SMCM

National Fellowships & Awards Office | SMCM

The Writing and Speaking Center | SMCM

Honoring the Enslaved | SMCM

Office of Accessibility Services | SMCM

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

January 2026

December 2025

Saint Mary's College of Maryland

Title / URL	Issues
Office of Student Success Services \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/office-student-success-services/	5
Page not found \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/invented-url-for-404-page	5
LEAD – Academics \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/academics/lead/	5
How to Apply – Office of Admission \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/	5
Learn More about St. Mary’s College of Maryland – Office of Admission \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/admissions/learn-more/	5
The Office of Information Technology \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/it/	5
National Fellowships & Awards Office \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/national-fellowships-awards/	5
The Writing and Speaking Center \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/writingcenter/	5
Honoring the Enslaved \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/honoring-enslaved/	5
Office of Accessibility Services \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/office-accessibility-services/	5

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

Saint Mary's College of Maryland

Where this issue has occurred