by OIT Staff
January 11, 2022
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Lists and Digital Accessibility
Properly formatted lists convey logical connections between otherwise disconnected items. They also break up your content and introduce strategic empty space and directional queues, allowing your content to be more readable and usable. For a list to be accessible, however, it is critical that the connection between listed items is conveyed both visually and semantically such that it can be detected by adaptive technology.
Why are Lists important?
Lists help users interpret information quickly and effectively but can only do so for all users if they are designed with accessibility in mind! Content creators often organize or arrange items visually by tabbing and manually typing a number or a symbol like a dash or an asterisk. This can lead to serious accessibility barriers since adaptive technology like screen reading software may not know that the listed items are a part of a list.
When a sighted user encounters a list of six to-do items, and item three instructs them to navigate elsewhere, they know they need to come back to the original list for items four through six. For a screen reader user, if the list is not created using built-in formatting tools that code each item as a part of a list, they may not know to return to the list for the three remaining items.
When a list is created using built-in list structuring tools, via a formatting toolbar, screen reading software should announce to the user that they’ve encountered a “list of six items, item 1, item 2, etc.”
Best Practices for Accessible Lists
Manually code or utilize built-in structuring tools or formatting toolbars to generate true, properly formatted list structure.
Do not use bulleted or numbered list structure to organize elements that do not logically form a list.
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