Air Force ROTC | Samford University

Samford Online Programs | Samford University

Samford University Maps and Directions

Samford Academic Programs

Samford University: Where Passion Meets Purpose

Samford Campus and Community

Academic Centers at Samford

Samford University | Birmingham, Alabama

Samford Trustees

Explore the History of Samford University

Lists of related items should be written [semantically](https://html.com/semantic-markup/) as a 
list.

Usually this means rewriting these to use the `<ul>` or `<ol>` tags.

This allows assistive technologies to more easily navigate from item to
item, or past entire groups of links if the user wants to. 

## Examples 

### Navigation

This navigation:

```html
<a href="/about">About us</a>
<a href="/products">Products</a>
<a href="/contact">Contact us</a>
```

Should be rewritten as a list:

```html
<ul>
  <li><a href="/about">About us</a></li>
  <li><a href="/products">Products</a></li>
  <li><a href="/contact">Contact us</a></li>
</ul>
```

### Tables for content

This single-column table is redundant. There is no
value in placing the content in a table, which makes
it harder for screen reader users to interpret and interact
with.

```html
<table>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Banana
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Apple
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Pear
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
```

Should be rewritten as a list:

```html
<ul>
  <li>Banana</li>
  <li>Apple</li>
  <li>Pear</li>
</ul>
```

## Justification

Users of assistive technologies, like screen readers, can skip an entire
list in one step. In some cases, they can even search inside a list. 

These aids are not available where links are written outside a list. 
Failing to use lists correctly can force users to have to step through
hundreds of items one at a time.

## Methodology

1. Any single-column tables are automatically considered 
   redundant lists. 
2. For non-table elements, recursively work down the page looking inside
   each element for links separated by minimal amounts of non-link text. 
   If the non-link text is below 30 characters 
   in length, we assume we're inside content that should be a list.
   Some exceptions are made, e.g. the presence of an `<hr>` would break
   out of the list.

## More information

See [Technique
H48](https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20161007/H48) for
details.

mark-navigation-section-as-list

January 2025

December 2024

Samford University

Title / URL	Issues
Air Force ROTC \| Samford Universitywww.samford.edu/departments/air-force-rotc/	5
Samford Online Programs \| Samford Universitywww.samford.edu/programs/online/	4
Samford University Maps and Directionswww.samford.edu/about/maps	3
Samford Academic Programswww.samford.edu/programs/	3
Samford University: Where Passion Meets Purposewww.samford.edu/about/	3
Samford Campus and Communitywww.samford.edu/about/community	3
Academic Centers at Samfordwww.samford.edu/programs/academic-centers	3
Samford University \| Birmingham, Alabamawww.samford.edu/	3
Samford Trusteeswww.samford.edu/about/trustees	3
Explore the History of Samford Universitywww.samford.edu/about/history	3

Write lists or groups of links semantically

Samford University

Where this issue has occurred