Technique F38:Failure of Success Criterion 1.1.1 due to not marking up decorative images in HTML in a way that allows assistive technology to ignore them

Applicability

HTML and XHTML

This technique relates to 1.1.1: Non-text Content (Failure).

Description

This describes a failure condition for text alternatives for images that should be ignored by AT. If there is no alt attribute at all assistive technologies are not able to ignore the non-text content. The alt attribute must be provided and have a null value (i.e., alt="" ) to avoid a failure of this Success Criterion.

This describes a failure condition for text alternatives for images that should be ignored by assistive technology (AT). If an image has the attribute role="presentation", it will be ignored by AT. However, if it does not have role="presentation", and if there is no alt attribute at all assistive technologies are not able to ignore the image. For decorative images which need to be ignored by AT, either role="presentation" must be used or the alt attribute must be provided and have a null value (i.e., alt="") to avoid a failure of this Success Criterion.

Examples

  • Decorative images that have no alt attribute and no role attribute

Tests

Procedure

For any img element that is used for purely decorative content:

  1. Check whether the element has no role attribute or has a role attribute value that is not presentation.
  2. Check whether the element has no alt attribute or has an alt attribute with a value that is not null.

Expected Results

  • If step #1 is true and if step #2 is true, this failure condition applies and content fails the Success Criterion.