Empty alt attributes are a two-front problem. For a screen-reader user, an unlabeled image is a dead end. For search, it's a signal you're leaving on the table. On a content-heavy site, there are usually hundreds of them — and nobody has a spare week to write descriptions by hand.
What WCAG actually asks for
The rule is simpler than people fear: informative images need a text alternative that conveys the same information; purely decorative images should have an empty alt="" so assistive tech skips them. The mistake is treating every image the same.
Watch out
Auto-generated alt text is a strong default, not a rubber stamp. A logo, a chart, or an image with text in it almost always needs a human to write something the machine can't infer.
Generate the baseline, review the exceptions
Run every image through an alt-text generator to get a solid first pass, then review the small set that carries meaning a model can't see — data visualizations, screenshots with UI text, and brand marks.
Tip
Treat decorative images explicitly. Marking them alt="" is a real accessibility decision, not
laziness — it keeps assistive tech from reading out noise.
Accessibility done right isn't a plugin you switch on — it's design, development, and content working from the same standards. That's the work we ground in W3C/WCAG on every build.
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