[BUG] sidebar navigation accessibility issue with <li>

[lizdm-uw]

Describe the bug

On create.uw.edu Research menu (megamenus):

• DubBot found a WCAG 2.1 Level A issue in menus: "Ensures that lists are structured correctly"
• Impact: serious
• Violations: WCAG 2.1 Level A: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
• Element Location: .page-item-2218 > .children
• Element Source:
  • Failure Summary: Fix all of the following: List element has direct children that are not allowed: ul

  Describe your environment

  • UW Wordpress theme
  • Chrome version 131.0.6778.205 (Official Build) (arm64)

  Steps to reproduce

  1. View DubBot accessibility checker https://uw.dubbot.com/sites/6659f030d82e820001b310f5/pages/6660852f8c59897b190de269
  

  Expected behavior

  Current Behavior

  Possible Solution

  Screenshots / Video

  Related Issues and/or PRs

[lcaple]

Thank you for reporting this. Updating this to note the issue is on the sidebar navigation and not the mega menu.

[tjsuw]

Hi @lizdm-uw, I've added this to our list to fix in our next round of accessibility fixes for the theme.

In the meantime, you might be able to clear this error in DubBot by revisiting the structure for these pages. I have a couple options for how you might be able to clear the error while waiting for a code update from us.

After doing some testing on our end, it appears that this empty ul.children is appearing when there are page(s) nested under the AI and Machine Learning Research page that have the "Hide from menu" option checked. (This is in the Page Attributes section, directly under where the Parent page is set.) If that checkbox is cleared for the child page(s), the previously hidden page(s) will appear in the menu and this will clear the error from DubBot.

Another option is to not nest the child page(s) under the AI and Machine Learning Research page. If they are intentionally hidden from the menu then you may find they don't need to be nested. That depends on your site structure and how you want it organized, of course.

If you do not have any child pages under the AI and Machine Learning Research page, please do let us know – then we can do a bit more research into how that unnecessary code is appearing.

[lizdm-uw]

Thank you, @tjsuw for the tip! I unchecked the Hide from Menu option on each page. Since I've disabled the right sidebar on those pages, that option was redundant.