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Siteimprove: Container Element is Empty

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When using the text editor, HTML may get created that you cannot see.

Although you can't see it, assistive technology such as screen readers will detect it. Siteimprove calls this out as the container element is empty, and it violates WAI-ARIA 1.1: 5.2.5 Required Owned Elements. It will show in Siteimprove as a red horizontal bar:

 

To remove the empty container:

  1. Note the text before or after the bar. In the example shown above, the text is "Your toolkit."
  2. Open the page in the browser by clicking on the URL in the top-middle of the Siteimprove window.
  3. If necessary, log into the site and edit the page. 
  4. Find the section where your text is located.
  5. Click the pencil to edit that section.
  6. If it's not obvious where to find the empty container, click the Source button to reveal the underlying HTML. (Learn about editing source code)
  7. Look for HTML elements with no content. They may look like:
    1. <ul></ul>
    2. <h2></h2>
  8. Delete the empty container.
  9. Save.
  10. If you delete too much or too little, the page will not render properly. Verify that the page looks as expected.