An element with “role=group” must not be a descendant of an element with “role=list”.

An element with role="group" cannot be nested inside an element with role="list" because the WAI-ARIA specification restricts which roles are allowed as children of a list.

The list role expects its direct children to have the listitem role. According to the ARIA specification, group is not a permitted child role of list. When a screen reader encounters a list, it announces the number of items and allows users to navigate between them. Inserting a group inside the list breaks that expected structure, which can confuse assistive technologies.

This issue commonly appears when wrapping a subset of <li> elements in a <div> with role="group" inside a <ul> or <ol>. Since <ul> and <ol> have an implicit role="list", the validator flags the violation.

If you need to visually or semantically group items within a list, you have a few options. You can use a nested list inside a <li>, which is valid HTML and produces a proper ARIA tree. Alternatively, if the grouping is purely visual, use CSS instead of a wrapper element.

Example with the issue

<ul>
  <li>Apple</li>
  <div role="group" aria-label="Citrus fruits">
    <li>Orange</li>
    <li>Lemon</li>
  </div>
</ul>

This triggers the validation error because the div with role="group" is a descendant of the <ul> (which has an implicit role="list"). It also has a second problem: a <div> is not a valid direct child of <ul>.

Fixed example using a nested list

<ul>
  <li>Apple</li>
  <li>
    Citrus fruits
    <ul>
      <li>Orange</li>
      <li>Lemon</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

The nested <ul> inside a <li> is valid HTML. Screen readers handle nested lists well, announcing the sublist and its item count separately.

Fixed example using separate lists

If a nested list does not fit your design, split the content into separate lists with headings:

<h3>All fruits</h3>
<ul>
  <li>Apple</li>
</ul>

<h3>Citrus fruits</h3>
<ul>
  <li>Orange</li>
  <li>Lemon</li>
</ul>

This avoids nesting issues entirely and gives each group a clear label.

Learn more:

MDN Reference

Using ARIA: Roles, states, and properties - MDN

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MDN Reference

ARIA: list role - MDN

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MDN Reference

Using ARIA - MDN

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