Unordered, ordered and definition lists

Impact: Moderate to high

Users mainly impacted: Blind, severely visually impaired, motor impaired, cognitive impaired.

RGAA criteria: Criterion 9.3

Explanation

Structuring content with the right elements provides an enhanced navigation experience for screen reader users.

A user who is blind, visually or reading impaired, and uses a screen reader, will use keyboard shortcuts to browse the content of a page. So, he will be able to reach or skip the previous/next header, link, form, field, list, iframe…

In the case of a list, the number of items in the list is announced, as well as the level of the item in the list. Thus, if the user finds the list too long, he/she can simply skip it rather than go through it in its entirety, or go to the beginning of the list, or to the end directly.

Three types of lists are identified

• unordered lists
  • The lists use the ul and li tags
  • The lists use the ARIA roles list and listitem.
• ordered lists
  • The lists use the ol and li tags
  • The lists use the ARIA roles list and listitem.
• definition lists
  • The lists use the dl and dt / dd tags