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Image has no accessible name Accessibility Checkpoint

Description

img elements must have an accessible name.

Help

Add an alt attribute describing the image, which screen readers voice instead of the image. Spacer images and purely decorative images should use alt="" without any global ARIA attributes. Do not use alt text containing only spaces since that’s voiced as an unlabeled image.

Applicable standards

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

Impact on users

  • NVDA 2022.2 / Edge 105 Image ignored.
  • NVDA 2021.2 / Edge 94 Image ignored.
  • NVDA 2020.2 / Edge 92 Image ignored.
  • NVDA 2019.2 / Chrome 79 Image unlabeled.
  • NVDA 2019.2 / FF68 Image ignored.
  • JAWS 2022.2207.25 / Edge 105 Image ignored.
  • JAWS 2021.2107.12 / Edge 94 Image ignored.
  • JAWS 2020.2008.24 / Edge 92 Image ignored.
  • JAWS 2019.1912.1 / Chrome 79 Image unlabeled.
  • JAWS 2019.1912.1 / FF68 Image ignored.
  • VoiceOver macOS 12.5 / Safari 15.6 Image filename read out.
  • VoiceOver macOS 11.5 / Safari 15.0 Image filename read out.
  • VoiceOver macOS 10.15 / Safari 14.1 Image filename read out.
  • VoiceOver macOS 10.14 / Safari 13.0 Image filename read out.
  • VoiceOver iOS 15.6 / Safari iOS 15.6 Image filename read out.
  • VoiceOver iOS 14.7 / Safari iOS 14.7 Image filename read out.
  • VoiceOver iOS 13.3 / Safari iOS 13.3 Image filename read out.
  • VoiceOver iOS 12.4 / Safari iOS 12.4 Image filename read out.

Change history

  • 5.36 Jan 2020 Improved detection. Changed rule ID from AccWcag1-1.1.8 to AccHtmlImgNoAlt.
  • 5.35 Oct 2019 Fixed false positive.
  • 5.32 Feb 2019 Fixed false positive in SVG fallbacks.
  • 5.9 Jun 2015 Detect non-standard image tags.
  • 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.
  • 4.4 Aug 2011 Failed to detect missing ALT when badly formed IMG tag used in XHTML documents (HTML documents worked as expected).
  • 3.5 Dec 2009 Don’t fire if start tag contains unclosed attributes: <IMG SRC=‘file.png ALT=‘Sunset’ >
  • 3.0 Dec 2008 Now triggers WCAG2 issue.
  • 2.0 Dec 2007 Now triggers Section 508 issue.
  • 1.0 Feb 2007 Added.

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

Rule ID: AccHtmlImgNoAlt