Careers - NCSC.GOV.UK

How to contact the National Cyber Security Centre - NCSC.GOV.UK

Phishing: Spot and report scam emails, texts, websites and... - NCSC.GOV.UK

To SOC or not to SOC ? - NCSC.GOV.UK

CyberFirst: How to stay secure online (11-14 year olds) - NCSC.GOV.UK

Public sector - NCSC.GOV.UK

All topics - NCSC.GOV.UK

NCSC leaders - NCSC.GOV.UK

CYBERUK - NCSC.GOV.UK

NCSC RSS feeds - NCSC.GOV.UK

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

June 2025

May 2025

The National Cyber Security Centre

Title / URL	Issues
Careers - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-ncsc/careers	1
How to contact the National Cyber Security Centre - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-this-website/contact-us	1
Phishing: Spot and report scam emails, texts, websites and... - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phishing-scams	1
To SOC or not to SOC ? - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/soc-or-not	1
CyberFirst: How to stay secure online (11-14 year olds) - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/cyberfirst1114	1
Public sector - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/section/information-for/public-sector	1
All topics - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/section/advice-guidance/all-topics	1
NCSC leaders - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-ncsc/ncsc-leadership	1
CYBERUK - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/section/keep-up-to-date/cyberuk	1
NCSC RSS feeds - NCSC.GOV.UKwww.ncsc.gov.uk/information/rss-feeds	1

Write lists or groups of links semantically

The National Cyber Security Centre

Where this issue has occurred