HTML and XHTML
This failure relates to:
This describes a failure condition for text alternatives on images. If there is no alt attribute, then assistive technologies are not able to identify the image or to convey its purpose to the user.
Some Assistive Technology might attempt to compensate for the missing alt text by reading the file name of the image. But it is insufficient to rely simply on the file name for many reasons. For example, file names may not be descriptive (e.g., images/nav01.gif), and technology specifications do not require descriptive file names. Some assistive technology may not read the file name if alt text is absent.
In the code example below, the person using a screen reader would not know the purpose of the image.
Example Code:
<img src="../images/animal.jpg" />
No resources available for this technique.
identify any img
elements, area
elements with href
attributes, and input
elements of type "image"
check that the alt
attribute for these elements exists.
If check #2 is false, this failure condition applies and content fails the Success Criterion.
Techniques are informative—that means they are not required. The basis for determining conformance to WCAG 2.0 is the success criteria from the WCAG 2.0 standard—not the techniques. For important information about techniques, please see the Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria section of Understanding WCAG 2.0.