Spacer IMG with valid ALT |
Section 508 1194.22(a); WAI / WCAG 1.0 checkpoint 1.1
Issue Description Images in this document that seem to serve decorative purposes only (spacers) do not have corresponding valid textual descriptions. A valid textual description is a blank or empty string for the ALT attribute value.
How to fix Add the ALT attribute to the IMG tag. For a spacer, the ALT attribute value should be a blank (" ") or empty ("") string, but it should exist anyway. The same applies for images used as bullets.
Issue Explanation The ALT attribute describes the associated image so that users without graphics-enabled browsers can still effectively navigate the page. Images that have only a decorative role do not need to have a textual description since users unable to see the image will not care about it.

In addition, speaking browsers or screen readers will not bother their users if the ALT text is a blank or empty string. A blank string is a string made up of one or more spaces, such as " ". An empty string is a string with no spaces at all, such as "".

The ALT attribute should be defined even if the value is a blank or empty string. Otherwise a screen reader or speaking browser might insert the image filename, for example, disturbing the user while listening to the page.