SIA-R39Image filename is accessible name for image

Accessibility requirements

This rule tests conformance of the following accessibility requirements:

Description

This rule checks that image elements that use their source filename as their accessible name do so without loss of information to the user.

Applicability

This rule applies to every element in the HTML namespace that is included in the accessibility tree and has a non-empty ("") accessible name, for which one of the following is true:

Expectations

  1. The element has an accessible name that serves an equivalent purpose to its non-text content. If there are several image sources, then the accessible name must accurately describe all of them.

    It is common for content management systems or other tools to default the alt attribute of an image to its filename if no text alternative is provided. However, these names are usually not descriptive, often due to the presence of the file extension. This rule uses this heuristic to pinpoints cases where the accessible name should be looked at by human testers. This rule does not decide in which case a filename is correct.

Assumptions

This rule assumes that the language of each test target can be correctly determined (either programmatically or by analyzing the content).

Accessibility support

This rule has no known accessibility support concerns.

Examples

Acknowledgments

This document includes material copied from or derived from https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/act/rules/9eb3f6/proposed/. Copyright © 2023 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang).