How To Tell If An Image Has Alt Text

How to Tell if an Image has Alt Text

Alt text (or alternative text) is an HTML attribute that is used to provide a text description of an image when the image cannot be displayed. This is important not only for users with visual impairments who rely on screen readers to navigate websites, but also for search engines that use alt text to understand the content of images on a page. In this article, we will explore how to tell if an image has alt text.

Using the Browser’s Developer Tools

Most modern browsers offer developer tools that allow you to inspect the HTML and CSS of a webpage. To check if an image has alt text, right-click on the image and select “Inspect Element”. This will open the developer tools and highlight the HTML code that corresponds to the image. Look for the “alt” attribute within the “img” tag. If there is alt text for the image, it will be displayed within the quotes after the “alt” attribute. If there is no alt text, the “alt” attribute will be present but empty, like this:

Using an Alt Text Checker

Another way to check if an image has alt text is to use an online alt text checker. There are several tools available that can scan a webpage and identify images that are missing alt text. These tools can also provide suggestions for improving the alt text to make it more descriptive and useful for users and search engines. Some popular alt text checkers include the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool, Siteimprove Accessibility Checker, and AChecker.

Conclusion

Ensuring that your website has proper alt text for images is an essential part of web accessibility and SEO (search engine optimization). By following the above tips, you can easily tell if an image has alt text and make any necessary updates to improve the accessibility and usability of your website. Remember, alt text should be concise, descriptive, and relevant to the content of the image.