Importance of Lists
A person with a visual impairment will not perceive the visual cues that help a sighted person understand that a set of items, displayed in digital content, should be considered as a group. When a person using assistive technology, like a screen-reader, comes across an accessible list in digital content, the first thing identified will be the number of items in the list. This helps orient them to the fact that they are entering a list, and how long it is.
If a list is improperly formatted, it may be confusing as to why there is a random string of words like “apple orange banana” in the middle of a document.
There are two main types of lists: Unordered (bulleted) and ordered (numbered or lettered).
Unordered List
- Apples
- Oranges
- Pears
Ordered List
- Add flour to bowl.
- Add yeast to the flour.
- Add warm water.
Common Errors
These common errors hinder the accessibility and usability of digital content.
- Improperly formatting content to look like a list (and nested lists), including manually inserting indents, bullets, or numbers.
Best Practices
Accessibility Checks
Use this checklist as a guide to ensure your lists are in an accessible format.
- Lists use application formatting tools or HTML tags.
- Lists are properly nested.
- Lists are not manually created.