Academic Departments

Faculty and Staff | Washington College

Center for Environment & Society

Submit your Application for Admission

Alexis Johnson

Navigating New Waters

A Writer of Promise

Experience Washington College

Learn By Doing

About Washington College

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

June 2025

May 2025

Washington College

Title / URL	Issues
Academic Departmentswashcoll.edu/academics/departments.php	2
Faculty and Staff \| Washington Collegewashcoll.edu/faculty-staff/top-links.php	2
Center for Environment & Societywashcoll.edu/learn-by-doing/ces/index.php	2
Submit your Application for Admissionwashcoll.edu/admissions/apply/index.php	2
Alexis Johnsonwashcoll.edu/stories/alexis-johnson.php	2
Navigating New Waterswashcoll.edu/stories/sean-garin.php	2
A Writer of Promisewashcoll.edu/stories/justin-nash.php	2
Experience Washington Collegewashcoll.edu/admissions/visit/index.php	2
Learn By Doingwashcoll.edu/learn-by-doing/	1
About Washington Collegewashcoll.edu/about/index.php	1

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

Washington College

Where this issue has occurred