Title on empty alt text

Silktide identifies images that are marked as decorative with empty alternative text but also carry a title. The two attributes contradict each other, and assistive technology handles the conflict unpredictably.

<!-- Problem: alt says "skip me", title says "read me" -->
<img src="logo.png" alt="" title="Company logo">

<!-- Fixed: genuinely decorative -->
<img src="logo.png" alt="">

<!-- Fixed: genuinely meaningful -->
<img src="logo.png" alt="Company logo">

Why this matters

An empty alt="" declares an image decorative, telling a screen reader to skip it. A title attribute, however, is still announced by some screen readers - so the same image is silent for some users and spoken for others. Whichever the author intended, the result is wrong for someone.

The title attribute is unreliable in general: it usually appears only as a mouse hover tooltip, so keyboard and touchscreen users don't see it either.

How to fix it

1. If the image is decorative, remove the title attribute and keep the empty alt="".
2. If the image is meaningful, move the description into the alt text and remove the title.
3. Do not use title as a substitute for alt text anywhere - it is not reliably exposed to anyone.

How Silktide tests this

1. Find every image on each page.
2. Select images whose alt attribute is present but empty.
3. Report each of those images that also carries a non-empty title attribute.

Learn more

• Understanding Success Criterion 1.1.1: Non-text Content (WCAG 2.2)
• Technique H67: Using null alt text and no title attribute on img elements
• Decorative images
• Missing alt text