Graduate College of Social Work: University of Houston - University of HoustonInstagram iconLinkedin

Hobby School of Public Affairs | University of Houston

UH Arts | University of Houston

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | University of Houston

Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine | University of Houston

College of Education | University of Houston

College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

The Honors College | University of Houston

Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design at the University of Houston | Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design | University of Houston

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

February 2026

January 2026

Universty of Houston

Title / URL	Issues
Graduate College of Social Work: University of Houston - University of HoustonInstagram iconLinkedinwww.uh.edu/socialwork/	9
Hobby School of Public Affairs \| University of Houstonwww.uh.edu/hobby/	6
UH Arts \| University of Houstonwww.uh.edu/uh-arts/	5
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences \| College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences \| University of Houstonwww.uh.edu/class/	4
Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine \| University of Houstonwww.uh.edu/medicine/	3
College of Education \| University of Houstonwww.uh.edu/education/	3
College of Natural Sciences and Mathematicswww.uh.edu/nsm/	3
The Honors College \| University of Houstonwww.uh.edu/honors/	3
Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design at the University of Houston \| Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design \| University of Houstonwww.uh.edu/architecture/	3

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

Universty of Houston

Where this issue has occurred