Decorative image missing null alt attribute Accessibility Checkpoint

Description

Decorative and spacer images must have a null alt attribute.

Help

Images used for decoration only should have alt='' or role=presentation so they can be ignored by screen readers.

Applicable standards

• WCAG 2.0 F38 (Success Criteria: 1.1.1 level A)
• WCAG 2.1 F38 (Success Criteria: 1.1.1 level A)
• Section 508 (2017) F38 (Success Criteria: 1.1.1 level A)

Note: Section 508 Refresh (2017) checkpoints are equivalent to WCAG 2.0 level A and level AA checkpoints.

Impact on users

• JAWS Reads out redundant alt text.
• NVDA Reads out redundant alt text.
• VoiceOver Reads out redundant alt text.

Change history

• 6.47 Dec 2022 Improved detection.
• 5.27 Oct 2017 Handle button ancestors. Changed rule ID from AccWcag2-F38-1 to AccHtmlImgDecorativeAltMissing.
• 5.9 Jun 2015 Detect non-standard image tags.
• 5.6 Sep 2014 Fixed false positive.
• 5.5 May 2014 Updated to April 2014 version of Techniques for WCAG 2.0.
• 5.0 Oct 2012 Don’t fire on IMG elements with no SRC attribute.
• 3.0 Dec 2008 Added.

This page describes a web site issue detected in HTML documents by SortSite Desktop and OnDemand Suite.

Rule ID: AccHtmlImgDecorativeAltMissing