WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Thread: Does it valid if image link has null alt text?

for

Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)

From: Jeevan Reddy
Date: Tue, Sep 07 2010 5:58PM
Subject: Does it valid if image link has null alt text?
No previous message | Next message →

Hi Friends,
Is it valid if image link has null alt text?
Scenario: i've a image link and has a text link adjacent to it pointing to
the same location.
so if i use same text adjacent to that image as alt text, same link be read
twice successively.
if i use same text as alt text and combined image and text together as
single link, it is some what ok, but same text read twice and become
redundant.
so i useded text and image together and has given null alt text(alt="").
here it work well as for as accessibility is concern.
Note: the images are not list items and i've couple of links like above in a
web page.
But my problem is As per SEO every image should have alt text, and links are
the main for Google indexing.
how does the above scenario effect on SEO?
Awaiting your reply.
Thanks and Regards,
Jeevan.

From: patrick dunphy
Date: Tue, Sep 07 2010 8:46AM
Subject: Re: Does it valid if image link has null alt text?
← Previous message | Next message →

Do you need 2 links? Id suggest you eliminate your text based link and
use that as the alt text. In my experience, images that are links
require alt text as alt="" is meaningless to non sighted users.

Links must make sense out of context - the scenario you describe
doesn't.

Hope that helps.

Thanks!
-PD

On 2010-09-07, at 8:28 AM, Jeevan Reddy < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:

> Hi Friends,
> Is it valid if image link has null alt text?
> Scenario: i've a image link and has a text link adjacent to it
> pointing to
> the same location.
> so if i use same text adjacent to that image as alt text, same link
> be read
> twice successively.
> if i use same text as alt text and combined image and text together as
> single link, it is some what ok, but same text read twice and become
> redundant.
> so i useded text and image together and has given null alt text
> (alt="").
> here it work well as for as accessibility is concern.
> Note: the images are not list items and i've couple of links like
> above in a
> web page.
> But my problem is As per SEO every image should have alt text, and
> links are
> the main for Google indexing.
> how does the above scenario effect on SEO?
> Awaiting your reply.
> Thanks and Regards,
> Jeevan.
>

From: adam solomon
Date: Tue, Sep 07 2010 3:54PM
Subject: Re: Does it valid if image link has null alt text?
← Previous message | Next message →

I am assuming that the img element is wrapped by an anchor tag. The link
wrapping the image can have a title attribute which would give it meaning
(Jaws reads the title attribute where no text exists). This will eliminate
the need to give a meaningful alt to the image - IOW you may give an empty
alt. However, there is no reason not to make the image a background image in
the css - this is the most accessible and standardized way to do it.

On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 3:46 PM, patrick dunphy < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >wrote:

> Do you need 2 links? Id suggest you eliminate your text based link and
> use that as the alt text. In my experience, images that are links
> require alt text as alt="" is meaningless to non sighted users.
>
> Links must make sense out of context - the scenario you describe
> doesn't.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Thanks!
> -PD
>
> On 2010-09-07, at 8:28 AM, Jeevan Reddy < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Friends,
> > Is it valid if image link has null alt text?
> > Scenario: i've a image link and has a text link adjacent to it
> > pointing to
> > the same location.
> > so if i use same text adjacent to that image as alt text, same link
> > be read
> > twice successively.
> > if i use same text as alt text and combined image and text together as
> > single link, it is some what ok, but same text read twice and become
> > redundant.
> > so i useded text and image together and has given null alt text
> > (alt="").
> > here it work well as for as accessibility is concern.
> > Note: the images are not list items and i've couple of links like
> > above in a
> > web page.
> > But my problem is As per SEO every image should have alt text, and
> > links are
> > the main for Google indexing.
> > how does the above scenario effect on SEO?
> > Awaiting your reply.
> > Thanks and Regards,
> > Jeevan.
> >

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Tue, Sep 07 2010 6:32AM
Subject: Re: Does it valid if image link has null alt text?
← Previous message | No next message

Unless you have a reason that the text link and the image link need to be separate links, combine them and use null alt on the image:

<a href="registration.php"><img src="register.gif" alt="" />Register</a>

This will eliminate the redundancy of the same text for two links.

This technique speaks to this issue: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-TECHS/H2.html

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems

= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility


-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of adam solomon
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 8:55 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Does it valid if image link has null alt text?

I am assuming that the img element is wrapped by an anchor tag. The link
wrapping the image can have a title attribute which would give it meaning
(Jaws reads the title attribute where no text exists). This will eliminate
the need to give a meaningful alt to the image - IOW you may give an empty
alt. However, there is no reason not to make the image a background image in
the css - this is the most accessible and standardized way to do it.

On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 3:46 PM, patrick dunphy < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >wrote:

> Do you need 2 links? Id suggest you eliminate your text based link and
> use that as the alt text. In my experience, images that are links
> require alt text as alt="" is meaningless to non sighted users.
>
> Links must make sense out of context - the scenario you describe
> doesn't.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Thanks!
> -PD
>
> On 2010-09-07, at 8:28 AM, Jeevan Reddy < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Friends,
> > Is it valid if image link has null alt text?
> > Scenario: i've a image link and has a text link adjacent to it
> > pointing to
> > the same location.
> > so if i use same text adjacent to that image as alt text, same link
> > be read
> > twice successively.
> > if i use same text as alt text and combined image and text together as
> > single link, it is some what ok, but same text read twice and become
> > redundant.
> > so i useded text and image together and has given null alt text
> > (alt="").
> > here it work well as for as accessibility is concern.
> > Note: the images are not list items and i've couple of links like
> > above in a
> > web page.
> > But my problem is As per SEO every image should have alt text, and
> > links are
> > the main for Google indexing.
> > how does the above scenario effect on SEO?
> > Awaiting your reply.
> > Thanks and Regards,
> > Jeevan.
> >