Empty alt and the Hidden Decorative Image
Use alt equals nothing so screen readers skip it.
The Empty alt Trick
For decorative images, the right move is an empty alt: write alt equals two quotation marks with nothing inside.
<img src="flourish.png" alt="">What Empty alt Does
An empty alt marks the image as decorative, so screen readers skip it completely and never announce it.
All lessons in this course
- Informative vs Decorative: The First Decision
- Writing Alt That Conveys Purpose, Not Pixels
- Empty alt and the Hidden Decorative Image
- Complex Images: Charts, Maps, and Long Descriptions