Ensure <li> Elements Are Used Semantically

Author

Researcher

Expert

July 29, 2024

Disabilities affected: Blind Hearing Mobility

Standards: WCAG 2.2 Level A

Web accessibility standards require all list items (li) to be contained within ul or ol parent elements.

Why It Matters

Screen readers notify users when they encounter a list, and tell them how many items are in a list.

When lists are not marked up correctly using proper semantic markup in a hierarchy, screen readers users won’t know what they are listening to.

Ensure that all list item li elements are wrapped inside of ul or ol parent elements.

List items may be contained in either unordered (bullet) lists or ordered (sequentially numbered) lists.

Code example

<ul>
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Tea</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ul>

Code example

<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Tea</li>
<li>Milk</li>