Alt text (alternative text)

Detailed explanation

Alt text — short for "alternative text" — is the value of the HTML alt attribute on <img> tags. It is read aloud by screen readers, displayed when an image fails to load, and used by Google Image Search and AI crawlers to understand what an image depicts.

WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content) requires every meaningful image to have alt text. Decorative images (purely visual flourishes that add no information) should use an empty alt attribute, written alt="", so screen readers skip them rather than announcing the filename.

Good alt text describes the image's purpose, not just its appearance. For a product photo, that means including the product name and any visually distinguishing detail a sighted user can see — color, pattern, key feature.

How this applies to Shopify stores

On Shopify, alt text can come from product-media content and from Liquid output such as {{ image.alt | escape }}. AccessComply can report missing-alt findings on reached rendered pages and present eligible content candidates for merchant review; deciding whether an image is meaningful or decorative still requires context.

What merchants should check next

Treat this term as a practical audit prompt, not just a definition. Check the storefront pages where the concept shows up in real customer journeys: product discovery, add-to-cart, cart drawer, checkout handoff, account login, and support contact flows. If the issue affects code, verify the rendered HTML and computed browser output after the theme change. If it affects copy or media, keep the merchant-facing wording accurate and easy to maintain.

Primary source: w3.org