ACT Rule qt1vmo
Image accessible name is descriptive
This one goes past whether an image has alt text and asks whether the alt text says what the image says. A photograph of a red bicycle with alt text reading "image" has a name. It does not have the right one.
A tool can find the places this applies and then hand you the decision. The rule is approved, which in W3C's process means it was implemented in full by at least one tool or methodology and then signed off by a working group. Approval is a statement about tools, not a statement that this is the settled way to test the criterion.
What passing this rule proves
When this rule fails, 1.1.1 Non-text Content is not satisfied, and that half is certain. When it passes, W3C's own outcome mapping says the criterion still needs further testing. So a green result here is evidence that one specific thing is not broken, and it is the answer W3C gives on 59 of its 87 live rules.
A pass means somebody agreed the name fits, on the images this rule looked at. The criterion covers every piece of non-text content on the page, which includes video posters, icon fonts, charts and background images that carry meaning. A person still has to walk the page and ask, for each one, whether a reader who cannot see it ends up with the same information.
The criteria this rule is a test for
These are the criteria the rule names as its own conformance requirement. Each one is a far bigger question than this rule asks, and our page for it sets out what the whole criterion covers.
- 1.1.1 Non-text Content Level A
The normative rule text lives at W3C
What the rule applies to, and exactly what it expects, is published by W3C and can change. We link to it rather than restate it, so nothing here can quietly fall out of date against the source. Read rule qt1vmo at W3C.
Every control needs a name that assistive technology can read
Every control has a name that assistive technology reads out. It is not always the text you see. The browser works it out in a fixed order. An aria-labelledby reference wins first, then aria-label, then the element's own content or its associated label, then a title attribute as a last resort.
A screen reader user moving through a page by control hears these names and nothing else. If the name is empty, they hear only the role. A button with no name is a button with no idea what it does.
Icon-only buttons are the common case. The icon carries the meaning visually and leaves nothing behind for the name. The control announces as just a button with no function described.
Fixes that satisfy it
If this rule fails on your site, these are the techniques that put it right.
Other rules W3C files under the same criteria
Each of these asks a different question about the same part of the standard. Passing all of them is still not the same as satisfying the criterion.
- Element marked as decorative is not exposed A tool can check this
- Image button has non-empty accessible name A tool can check this
- Image has non-empty accessible name A tool can check this
- Link has non-empty accessible name A tool can check this
- Object element rendering non-text content has non-empty accessible name A tool can check this
- SVG element with explicit role has non-empty accessible name A tool can check this
All 87 ACT rules are grouped by the criteria they test, and 24 of them decide nothing about WCAG on their own. Run a free scan to see which of these your own pages trip.