About This HTML Issue
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>Find issues like this automatically
Rocket Validator scans thousands of pages in seconds, detecting HTML issues across your entire site.