HTML Guides for ol
Learn how to identify and fix common HTML validation errors flagged by the W3C Validator — so your pages are standards-compliant and render correctly across every browser. Also check our Accessibility Guides.
The role="list" attribute is redundant on an <ol> element because it already has an implicit ARIA role of list.
HTML elements come with built-in (implicit) ARIA roles that convey their purpose to assistive technologies. The <ol> and <ul> elements both have an implicit role of list, so explicitly adding role="list" is unnecessary and creates noise in your markup.
That said, there’s a well-known reason some developers add this role intentionally. Safari removes list semantics when list-style: none is applied via CSS. Adding role="list" is a common workaround to restore those semantics for VoiceOver users. If this is your situation, the W3C warning is technically correct but you may choose to keep the role for accessibility reasons.
If you don’t need the Safari workaround, simply remove the role attribute.
Before
<ol role="list">
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item</li>
</ol>After
<ol>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item</li>
</ol>
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