Bullet Points Are Lists, Not Characters

A common mistake that we see fairly often is using asterisks instead of lists for bullet points.

For example (please don't do this):

* Item One
* Item Two
* Item Three

To the web browser, this looks like three paragraphs with a * asterisk in front of each. HTML however has bulleted list type (UL) which will look something like this. This can be created by first typing <ul>, then <li>ItemOne</li>, then closing the </ul>. Here is the result. 

  • Item One
  • Item Two
  • Item Three

While the differences are subtle to our eyes, to the web browser they are very different things and using the appropriate tag for the job is important if we are to stay in compliance with Section 508.