Format plain-text lists with standard conventions
In plain text a list is a list because its labels say so. Every unordered item starts with the same character, an asterisk or a hyphen or a bullet, and every ordered item carries a number or a letter followed by a period or a closing bracket. W3C lists T2 as sufficient for 1.3.1 Info and Relationships in the available-in-text form. Three rules make or break it. Labels ascend, so numbers run in numeric order and letters in alphabetical order, or in numeric order where they are Roman numerals. Nothing else in the list starts a line the way a list item does. And a list item is itself a paragraph, which chains this straight back to T1's blank-line rules. One hard limit sits at the top of W3C's page. Nested lists cannot be represented this way at all, so a hierarchy needs a format that has markup.
How we find it in an audit
Plain-text files rarely ship as content, so this comes up occasionally rather than routinely. When it does we look for mixed markers, numbering that restarts or skips, and lists that are only lists because somebody indented them.
How affected users experience it
There is no list markup to announce, so the characters carry the whole of the structure. A consistent marker lets a listener register asterisk as next item, and sequential numbers tell them how far through they are. Mixed markers and skipped numbers take both away, and the list collapses back into lines with no count and no boundaries.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
1. Unplug the router.
2. Wait 10 seconds.
3. Reconnect the power.Fails
One item starts with 1., the next with 2), and the third with a hyphen.
How this gets tested
The W3C publishes test rules that define what a checker looks for here.
- ARIA attribute is defined in WAI-ARIAA tool can check this
- ARIA state or property has valid valueA tool can check this
- Element with role attribute has required states and propertiesA tool can check this
- Form field has non-empty accessible nameA tool can check this
- Headers attribute specified on a cell refers to cells in the same table elementA tool can check this
- Role attribute has valid valueA tool can check this
- ARIA global properties not used where prohibitedA tool can check this
- ARIA required context roleA tool can check this
- ARIA required owned elementsA tool can check this
- ARIA state or property is permittedA tool can check this
- Table header cell has assigned cellsA tool can check this
Other ways to satisfy this rule
52 guides on this site are filed under 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule when used for making information and relationships conveyed through presentation programmatically determinable or available in text, so the condition is part of the test rather than a footnote to it.
- ARIA11sufficientAdd landmarks so users can skip around
- ARIA12sufficientUse role=heading when h1-h6 is impossible
- ARIA13sufficientName repeated landmarks so they are distinguishable
- ARIA16sufficientName controls from visible text with aria-labelledby
- ARIA17sufficientGroup related form fields with ARIA roles
- ARIA20sufficientMark leftover page areas with role=region
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique T2: Using standard text formatting conventions for lists. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.