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Text of the page (random words):
alt attribute wikipedia jump to content main menu main menu move to sidebar hide navigation main page contents current events random article about wikipedia contact us contribute help learn to edit community portal recent changes upload file special pages search search appearance donate create account log in personal tools donate create account log in contents move to sidebar hide top 1 history 2 usage 3 lawsuits 4 references 5 external links toggle the table of contents alt attribute 14 languages asturianu deutsch español français 日本語 한국어 македонски nederlands português slovenščina српски srpski svenska türkçe 中文 edit links article talk english read edit view history tools tools move to sidebar hide actions read edit view history general what links here related changes upload file permanent link page information cite this page get shortened url switch to legacy parser print export download as pdf printable version in other projects wikimedia commons wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide from wikipedia the free encyclopedia alternative text that appears when a html element cannot be rendered for the use of alt attributes in wikipedia see wikipedia alternative text for images html html and variants dynamic html html5 xhtml basic mobile profile html elements and attributes html element article audio blink canvas div and span marquee meta video html attribute alt attribute html frame editing html editor text editor character encodings and language character encodings character entity references named characters unicode language code document and browser technology document object model browser object model style sheets css font family web colors quirks mode web storage rendering engine client side scripting and apis javascript webcl htmx web3d technology web3d webgl webgpu webxr standardizations w3c validator whatwg mdn web docs web platform comparisons document markup languages comparison of browser engines v t e the alt attribute is the html attribute used in html and xhtml documents to specify alternative text alt text that is to be displayed in place of an element that cannot be rendered the standards organization for the world wide web the world wide web consortium w3c recommends that every image displayed through html have an alt attribute though the alt attribute does not need to contain text the lack of proper alt attributes on website images has led to several accessibility related lawsuits the alt attribute is used to increase accessibility and user friendliness including for blind internet users who rely on special software for web browsing the use of the alt attribute for images displayed within html is part of w3c s web content accessibility guidelines wcag screen readers and text based web browsers read the alt attribute in place of the image the text within the alt attribute substitutes the image when copy pasted as text and makes images more machine readable which improves search engine optimization seo history edit the attribute was first introduced in the html 1 2 draft in 1993 to provide support for text based browsers 1 in html 4 01 which was released in 1999 the attribute was made to be a requirement for the img and area tags 2 it is optional for the input tag and the deprecated applet tag 3 internet explorer 7 and earlier render text in alt attributes as tooltip text which is not compliant with the world wide web consortium w3c s html standards 4 this behavior led many web developers to misuse the alt attribute when they wished to display tooltips containing additional information about images instead of using the title attribute that was intended for that use 5 6 as of internet explorer 8 released in 2009 alt attributes no longer render as tooltips on internet explorer 7 usage edit an example of alt attribute text being displayed in place of an unavailable image with the underlying html displayed below it the wikipedia article for wolf on the lynx web browser displaying the text of the alt attribute in orange in place of the images the text in the alt attribute is used to replace the image when the image cannot be loaded without changing the intended meaning of the page s contents 8 the w3c s web content accessibility guidelines state that the alt attribute is used to convey the meaning and intent of the image rather than being a literal description of the image itself 9 for example an alt attribute for an image of an institution s logo should convey that it is the institution s logo rather than describing details of what the logo looks like 10 11 the alt attribute is intended to be used for short and concise descriptions of the image longer descriptions can be given using the longdesc attribute which provides more detailed information and complements but does not replace the alt attribute 2 a screen reader such as orca will read out the alt text in place of the image 12 a text based web browser such as lynx will display the alt text instead of the image or will display the value attribute if the image is a clickable button 13 a graphical browser typically will display only the image and will display the alt text only if the user views the image s properties or has configured the browser not to display images or if the browser was unable to retrieve or to decode the image 14 the use of descriptions in the alt attribute improves search engine optimization and allows image specific search engines such as google images to search for and display relevant images that are used on websites in search results 15 for non image search results the text within the alt attribute is read by search engines the same way that regular text on the page is read 16 the w3c recommends that images that convey no information but are purely decorative be specified in css rather than in the html markup if decorative images are rendered using html that do not add to the content and provide no additional information then the w3c recommends that a blank alt attribute be included in the form of alt 17 this makes the page more navigable for users of screen readers or non graphical browsers by skipping over images that do not convey any meaning if no alt attribute has been supplied then browsers that cannot display the image will not overlook the image but instead will read or display the url or another identifying marker 18 this creates ambiguity since the user is generally unable to determine from a bare reading of a url if the image is relevant to the text or if it is a purely decorative element of the webpage 19 a 2021 google lighthouse audit showed that 27 of alt text attributes audited were empty despite the fact that the majority of those images were non decorative informational images 20 lawsuits edit there have been many lawsuits over website accessibility and the lack of proper alt attributes on websites 18 maguire v sydney organising committee for the olympic games was a 2000 lawsuit in which a blind man in australia sued the sydney organising committee for the olympic games because their website www olympics com was not accessible to him because of the lack of alt attributes on images 21 the australian human rights commission ruled that the website had discriminated against him for failing to conform to accessibility standards that enable blind individuals to navigate websites 22 during the lawsuit the australian commonwealth state and territory governments issued a joint statement through the department of broadband communications and the digital economy that they were adopting the w3c s accessibility guidelines for all gov au websites 23 in the united states there have been several high profile lawsuits involving the lack of alt attributes on images that cite a violation of the americans with disabilities act ada 24 the united states department of justice gives the lack of alt attributes as an example of a barrier to website accessibility 25 national federation of the blind v target corp was a 2006 class action lawsuit that alleged that target com violated the ada because the images did not use alt attributes 26 this lawsuit set a legal precedent in the united states for website accessibility and compliance with the ada 27 references edit berners lee tim connolly daniel june 1993 hypertext markup language html internet draft version 1 2 ietf iiir working group archived from the original on 3 january 2017 retrieved 18 september 2010 1 2 13 objects images and applets world wide web consortium 24 december 1999 archived from the original on 6 september 2008 retrieved 4 december 2005 hazaël massieux dominique 20 november 2002 use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual world wide web consortium archived from the original on 20 march 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 why does not mozilla display my alt tooltips mdn web docs archived from the original on 15 october 2008 retrieved 22 july 2009 flavell a j use of alt texts in imgs www htmlhelp com archived from the original on 8 january 2022 retrieved 16 october 2022 w3c html wg 24 december 1999 7 4 3 the title attribute html 4 01 specification w3c archived from the original on 26 july 2009 retrieved 22 july 2009 what s new in internet explorer 8 accessibility and aria msdn microsoft archived from the original on 28 february 2009 retrieved 22 july 2009 htmlimageelement alt mozilla archived from the original on 22 august 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 using alt attributes on img elements world wide web consortium archived from the original on 16 may 2022 retrieved 13 october 2022 logo alt text university of south carolina archived from the original on 22 july 2022 retrieved 15 october 2022 montti roger 1 november 2022 google explains alt text for logos buttons search engine journal archived from the original on 3 november 2022 retrieved 3 november 2022 hofmann frank beckert axel 2021 text art rendering images as text linux magazine archived from the original on 15 october 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 lynx users guide v2 8 9 lynx invisible island net archived from the original on 4 february 2019 retrieved 15 october 2022 image alt text pennsylvania state university 6 october 2014 archived from the original on 12 october 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 google images best practices google developers 20 september 2022 archived from the original on 14 october 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 southern matt g 22 march 2022 google alt text only a factor for image search search engine journal archived from the original on 22 april 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 embedded content html 5 w3c archived from the original on 2 july 2017 retrieved 29 june 2017 1 2 solovieva tatiana i bock jeremy m 2014 monitoring for accessibility and university websites meeting the needs of people with disabilities journal of postsecondary education and disability 27 2 113 127 archived from the original on 14 october 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 via education resources information center curl angela l bowers deborah d 23 april 2009 a longitudinal study of website accessibility have social work education websites become more accessible journal of technology in human services 27 2 93 105 doi 10 1080 15228830902749229 hdl 2374 mia 5279 s2cid 143667951 archived from the original on 14 october 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 tait alex davis scott niyi awosusi olu wilhelm gary dixon carlie 30 november 2021 part ii chapter 9 accessibility web almanac by httparchive org retrieved 14 october 2022 white caroline 2 november 2000 battle to be equal the guardian archived from the original on 14 october 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 via newspapers com barkham patrick 30 august 2000 website discriminated against blind the guardian archived from the original on 23 august 2016 retrieved 14 october 2022 seventh ministerial meeting of the online council media release australian department of broadband communications and the digital economy 30 june 2000 archived from the original on 20 june 2013 retrieved 14 october 2022 cohen alex h fresneda jorge e anderson rolph e september 2020 what retailers need to understand about website inaccessibility and disabled consumers challenges and opportunities journal of consumer affairs 54 3 854 889 doi 10 1111 joca 12307 issn 0022 0078 s2cid 225771708 guidance on web accessibility and the ada ada gov 18 march 2022 archived from the original on 13 october 2022 retrieved 14 october 2022 daniels linda markus 13 september 2006 websites for the blind is this the next year 2000 compliant requirement wral tv archived from the original on 16 september 2008 retrieved 14 october 2022 frank jonathan january 2008 web accessibility for the blind corporate social responsibility or litigation avoidance proceedings of the 41st annual hawaii international conference on system sciences hicss 2008 waikoloa hi ieee p 284 doi 10 1109 hicss 2008 497 s2cid 16280255 external links edit appropriate use of alternative text from webaim mini faq about the alternate text of images by ian hickson retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title alt_attribute oldid 1373204577 categories html internet properties established in 1995 web accessibility hidden categories articles with short description short description matches wikidata good articles use dmy dates from october 2022 this page was last edited on 4 september 2026 at 15 29 utc page was rendered with parsoid text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike 4 0 license additional terms may apply by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc a non profit organization privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia legal safety contacts code of conduct developers statistics cookie statement mobile view search search toggle the table of contents alt attribute 14 languages add topic