Page Content
- About ALT Text
- Accurate, Concise Description
- Artistic Example
- Caption vs. ALT Text
- Long Description
- Empty ALT Text (Web Pages)
- Images as Links (Web Pages)
About ALT Text
ALT text refers to invisible description of images which are read aloud to blind users on a screen reader. Adding ALT text allows authors to include images, but still provide the content in an alternative text based format. See example below for what a screen reader experiences when no ALT Text is used.
Because this page has no image ALT tags, it is unusuable when images fail to display.
Note: Nittany Bus Depot is a fictional company.
If no ALT text is provided, then a screen reader would only be able to say "IMAGE" or perhaps provide a file name.
WCAG 2.0 Guideline 1.1.1—"All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose."
This page provides general guidelines on what kinds of text to use in an ALT tag. For specific steps within a specific tool, please select a link within the links in the “ALT Text How To” section.
Accurate, Concise Description
It’s important to not only provide ALT text, but also provide one that is useful in [...]