HTML Guides for listitem

The WAI-ARIA specification defines strict ownership requirements for certain roles. The listitem role is one such role — it must be “owned by” an element with role="list" or role="group". “Owned by” means the listitem must be either a direct DOM child of the owning element, or explicitly associated with it via the aria-owns attribute.

This matters because screen readers and other assistive technologies rely on the accessibility tree to convey structure to users. When a screen reader encounters a properly structured list, it announces something like “list, 3 items” and lets the user navigate between items. Without the parent role="list", the individual items lose their list context — users won’t know how many items exist, where the list begins and ends, or that the items are related at all.

In most cases, the simplest and most robust fix is to use native HTML list elements (<ul> or <ol> with <li> children) instead of ARIA roles. Native elements have built-in semantics that don’t require additional attributes. Only use ARIA roles when native elements aren’t feasible — for example, when building a custom component where the visual layout prevents using standard list markup.

Examples

Incorrect: listitem without a parent list

These listitem elements are not contained within a role="list" or role="group" parent, so the validator reports an error.

<div role="listitem">Apples</div>
<div role="listitem">Bananas</div>
<div role="listitem">Cherries</div>

Correct: wrapping items in role="list"

Adding a parent container with role="list" establishes the required ownership relationship.

<div role="list">
  <div role="listitem">Apples</div>
  <div role="listitem">Bananas</div>
  <div role="listitem">Cherries</div>
</div>

Correct: using native HTML list elements

Native <ul> and <li> elements implicitly carry the list and listitem roles without any ARIA attributes. This is the preferred approach.

<ul>
  <li>Apples</li>
  <li>Bananas</li>
  <li>Cherries</li>
</ul>

Correct: using role="group" for nested sublists

The role="group" container is appropriate for grouping a subset of list items within a larger list, such as a nested sublist.

<div role="list">
  <div role="listitem">Fruits
    <div role="group">
      <div role="listitem">Apples</div>
      <div role="listitem">Bananas</div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div role="listitem">Vegetables
    <div role="group">
      <div role="listitem">Carrots</div>
      <div role="listitem">Peas</div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Note that role="group" should itself be nested inside a role="list" — it doesn’t replace the top-level list container, but rather serves as an intermediate grouping mechanism within one.

Correct: using aria-owns for non-descendant ownership

If the DOM structure prevents you from nesting the items directly inside the list container, you can use aria-owns to establish the relationship programmatically.

<div role="list" aria-owns="item-1 item-2 item-3"></div>

<!-- These items live elsewhere in the DOM -->

<div role="listitem" id="item-1">Apples</div>
<div role="listitem" id="item-2">Bananas</div>
<div role="listitem" id="item-3">Cherries</div>

This approach should be used sparingly, as it can create confusion if the visual order doesn’t match the accessibility tree order. Whenever possible, restructure your HTML so the items are actual descendants of the list container.

The article element is a sectioning content element that represents a self-contained composition — a blog post, a news story, a forum entry, or similar independent content. Because it carries the implicit ARIA role of article, it functions as a landmark that assistive technologies recognize and expose to users for navigation. Overriding this landmark role with listitem creates a conflict: the element loses its article semantics for assistive technology users, and the listitem role itself becomes invalid because ARIA’s role mapping rules don’t permit it on article.

According to the ARIA in HTML specification, each HTML element has a set of allowed ARIA roles. The article element only permits a narrow set of roles (such as application, document, feed, main, none, presentation, and region). The listitem role is not among them. This restriction exists to prevent authors from creating confusing or contradictory semantics that would degrade the accessibility experience.

Beyond validation, this matters for real users. Screen readers rely on role information to convey structure. An article announced as a listitem is misleading — the user loses the ability to navigate by article landmarks, and the listitem may not function correctly without a proper parent list context. Browsers and assistive technologies expect listitem roles to appear as direct children of an element with role="list" (or within native ul/ol elements).

How to fix it

The solution depends on your intent:

• If you want a list of articles, use native HTML list markup (ul or ol with li) and place each article inside a list item. This gives you both list semantics and article landmarks without any ARIA overrides.
• If you can’t use native list elements, use neutral div elements with role="list" and role="listitem", and nest the article inside each listitem container.
• If the content isn’t truly a list, simply remove the role="listitem" attribute and let the article element use its native semantics.

Examples

Invalid: role="listitem" on an article element

This triggers the validator error because listitem is not an allowed role for article.

<article role="listitem">
  <h2>News item</h2>
  <p>Details about this story.</p>
</article>

Valid: native list with article elements inside

Using ul and li provides proper list semantics while preserving the article landmark role.

<ul>
  <li>
    <article>
      <h2>News item</h2>
      <p>Details about this story.</p>
    </article>
  </li>
  <li>
    <article>
      <h2>Another item</h2>
      <p>More details here.</p>
    </article>
  </li>
</ul>

Valid: ARIA list roles on neutral containers with nested article elements

When native list elements aren’t suitable for your layout, use div elements for the list structure and nest each article inside.

<div role="list">
  <div role="listitem">
    <article>
      <h2>News item</h2>
      <p>Details about this story.</p>
    </article>
  </div>
  <div role="listitem">
    <article>
      <h2>Another item</h2>
      <p>More details here.</p>
    </article>
  </div>
</div>

Valid: standalone article without a list role

If the content doesn’t belong in a list, simply remove the invalid role.

<article>
  <h2>News item</h2>
  <p>Details about this story.</p>
</article>

In every case, the key principle is the same: let the article element keep its native semantics, and use the appropriate list structure around it rather than forcing a conflicting role onto it.

Many HTML elements have built-in (implicit) ARIA roles defined by the WAI-ARIA specification. The <li> element natively carries the listitem role when it is a child of a <ul>, <ol>, or <menu> element. Adding role="listitem" explicitly doesn’t change behavior, but it clutters your markup and signals a misunderstanding of how semantic HTML and ARIA interact. This falls under the first rule of ARIA use: “If you can use a native HTML element with the semantics and behavior you require already built in, do so, instead of re-purposing an element and adding an ARIA role.”

Redundant ARIA roles create several problems:

• Maintenance burden — Extra attributes add noise to your code, making it harder to read and maintain.
• Potential confusion — Other developers may wonder if the explicit role was added intentionally to override something, leading to uncertainty during code reviews.
• Validator warnings — Tools like the W3C HTML Validator flag these redundancies, and accumulating unnecessary warnings can obscure real issues that need attention.

The ARIA listitem role is designed for situations where you cannot use semantic HTML — for instance, when you need to create a list-like structure from generic elements like <div> or <span>. In those cases, you would pair role="list" on the container with role="listitem" on each child. But when you’re already using <ul>, <ol>, or <menu> with <li> children, the ARIA roles are built in and should not be repeated.

To fix this, simply remove the role="listitem" attribute from your <li> elements. If you also have role="list" on a <ul> or <ol>, remove that too — it’s equally redundant.

Examples

❌ Redundant role on <li> elements

<ul role="list">
  <li role="listitem">Apples</li>
  <li role="listitem">Bananas</li>
  <li role="listitem">Cherries</li>
</ul>

Both role="list" on the <ul> and role="listitem" on each <li> are unnecessary because these elements already carry those roles implicitly.

✅ Clean semantic HTML without redundant roles

<ul>
  <li>Apples</li>
  <li>Bananas</li>
  <li>Cherries</li>
</ul>

The <ul> and <li> elements provide all the accessibility semantics needed without any explicit ARIA attributes.

✅ Using ARIA roles on non-semantic elements (when necessary)

If for some reason you cannot use native list elements, ARIA roles are appropriate on generic elements:

<div role="list">
  <div role="listitem">Apples</div>
  <div role="listitem">Bananas</div>
  <div role="listitem">Cherries</div>
</div>

This is the intended use case for role="listitem" — adding list semantics to elements that don’t have them natively. However, using semantic <ul>/<ol> with <li> is always preferred when possible.