An alt Decision Tree | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

… and the text has a specific function, for example is an icon. Use the alt attribute to communicate the function of the image. See Functional Images .

… and the text in the image is not present otherwise. Use the alt attribute to include the text of the image. See Images of Text .

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Is the image used in a link or a button, and would it be hard or impossible to understand what the link or the button does, if the image wasn’t there?

Use the alt attribute to communicate the destination of the link or action taken. See Functional Images .

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… and it’s a simple graphic or photograph. Use a brief description of the image in a way that conveys that meaning in the alt attribute. See Informative Images .

… and it’s a graph or complex piece of information. Include the information contained in the image elsewhere on the page. See Complex Images .

… and it shows content that is redundant to real text nearby. Use an empty alt attribute. See (redundant) Functional Images .

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Developed by the Education and Outreach Working Group ( EOWG ). Developed with support from the WAI-ACT project , co-funded by the European Commission IST Programme .

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