Provost | The George Washington University

Terms of Use | The George Washington University

Our Location | The George Washington University

About | The George Washington University

University Mission Statement | The George Washington University

Admissions & Aid | The George Washington University

Research Impact | The George Washington University

Faculty & Staff | The George Washington University

Research | The George Washington University

First time visit: View without clicking anything

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

The George Washington University

Title / URL	Issues
Provost \| The George Washington Universitywww.gwu.edu/provost	7
Terms of Use \| The George Washington Universitywww.gwu.edu/terms-use	7
Our Location \| The George Washington Universitywww.gwu.edu/our-location	7
About \| The George Washington Universitywww.gwu.edu/about	7
University Mission Statement \| The George Washington Universitywww.gwu.edu/university-mission-statement	7
Admissions & Aid \| The George Washington Universitywww.gwu.edu/admissions-aid	7
Research Impact \| The George Washington Universitywww.gwu.edu/research-impact	7
Faculty & Staff \| The George Washington Universitywww.gwu.edu/faculty-staff	7
Research \| The George Washington Universitywww.gwu.edu/research	7
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.gwu.edu/	7

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

The George Washington University

Where this issue has occurred