HHMI IE3 – Inclusive Excellence in Teaching at SMCM

Academics – St. Mary's College of Maryland

Office of International Education | SMCM

Page not found

LEAD

Learn More about St. Mary’s College of Maryland

The Office of Information Technology | SMCM

Office of Student Financial Assistance | SMCM

Honoring the Enslaved

Boyden Gallery

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

November 2025

October 2025

Saint Mary's College of Maryland

Title / URL	Issues
HHMI IE3 – Inclusive Excellence in Teaching at SMCMwww.smcm.edu/hhmi/	4
Academics – St. Mary's College of Marylandwww.smcm.edu/academics/	4
Office of International Education \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/ie/	4
Page not foundwww.smcm.edu/invented-url-for-404-page	4
LEADwww.smcm.edu/academics/lead/	4
Learn More about St. Mary’s College of Marylandwww.smcm.edu/admissions/learn-more/	4
The Office of Information Technology \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/it/	4
Office of Student Financial Assistance \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/osfa/	4
Honoring the Enslavedwww.smcm.edu/honoring-enslaved/	4
Boyden Gallerywww.smcm.edu/boyden-gallery/	4

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

Saint Mary's College of Maryland

Where this issue has occurred