div with parent dl has invalid role Web Standard

Description

A div child of a dl element must not have any role value other than presentation or none.

Help

A div inside a dl is only allowed to group dt and dd elements. Any role other than presentation or none breaks the list structure, so the list is announced incorrectly by screen readers. Remove the role attribute or change it to presentation or none.

Applicable standards

• ARIA 4
• WCAG 2.0 (Success Criteria: 4.1.2 level A)
• WCAG 2.1 (Success Criteria: 4.1.2 level A)
• WCAG 2.2 (Success Criteria: 4.1.2 level A)
• Section 508 (2017) (Success Criteria: 4.1.2 level A)
• EN-301-549 (Success Criteria: 4.1.2 level A)
• HTML

Note: Section 508 Refresh (2017) checkpoints are equivalent to WCAG 2.0 level A and level AA checkpoints. EN 301 549 checkpoints are equivalent to WCAG 2.1 level A and level AA checkpoints.

Change history

• 6.59 Dec 2025 Added to W3 validator for ARIA 1.3.

This page describes a web site issue detected in HTML documents by SortSite Desktop and OnDemand Suite.

Rule ID: W3cHtml5AssertNestedDlDiv