Alt text: when real life is more nuanced than the guidelines
Over the past months, I’ve written several posts about alt text and several times I received comments saying: “even decorative images should have alt text, because people with low vision may see the image, but not clearly enough to understand it”.
These remarks made me pause and think, because I was sure what WCAG directions were, but I also knew that the criteria and standarts are not perfect and are being continously improved to make them up to date with the real users experience.
What WCAG requires
According to accessibility guidelines, every image still must have an alt attribute:
meaningful images → descriptive alt text
decorative images → empty alt (alt=”“) so screen readers skip them
Here are WCAG Techniques for alt text and an official alt decision tree.
So the conclusion is: if an image doesn’t add information, it shouldn’t clutter the assistive experience.
What happens in practice
Real users don’t experience the web in neat categories.
People with low vision often:
perceive shapes, colors, or layouts
but miss details, text inside images, or visual cues
and rely on alt text to confirm what they are seeing
In that context, an image that is “decorative” for one person may still provide context, orientation, or reassurance for another.
If an image helps answer “What am I looking at?” or “What is the intention here?”, skipping it entirely may remove value - even if it doesn’t carry hard information.
WCAG tells us when alt text is required, but real user research on low vision helps us understand when it’s still needed:
· WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey shows that users with partial vision do rely heavily on alt text
· Research shows people with low vision struggle with images even when they are “visible”
· WCAG is screen-reader-centric by design, so meeting WCAG criteria doesn’t equal to meeting all low-vision needs
So should every image have alt text?
Officially:
✔ Images with meaning → yes
✔ Purely decorative → use alt=””
But practically, the simple test I use is: “does this image add context, orientation, mood or understanding?”
If the answer is positive, even if the image isn’t strictly “informational”, giving a short, clear alt text benefits real users.
Alt text is not just a technical requirement, it’s a design choice that shapes how people perceive, interpret, and feel included on the web.
We need to remember that standards give us structure, but it’s the user experience that gives us meaning. And they both matter.