Using null alt text and no title attribute on img elements for images that AT should ignore

Important Information about Techniques

See Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.1 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.1.

Applicability

HTML and XHTML documents that load images.

This technique relates to Success Criterion 1.1.1: Non-text Content (Sufficient).

Description

The purpose of this technique is to show how images can be marked so that they can be ignored by Assistive Technology.

If no title attribute is used, and the alt text is set to null (i.e. alt="") it indicates to assistive technology that the image can be safely ignored.

Note

Have a "null" alt attribute is not the same as having no alt attribute.

Examples

Example 1

The following image is used to insert a decorative image on a Web page.

<img src="squiggle.gif" width="20" height="20" alt="" />

Tests

Procedure

For each image that should be ignored:

  1. Check that title attribute is either absent or empty.
  2. Check that alt attribute is present and empty.

Expected Results

  • #1 and #2 are true