Image alt text should not start with words like 'image of', 'photo of', or 'picture of' — screen readers already announce the element type.

When an <img> element has alt text that begins with phrases like "image of", "photo of", "picture of", or "graphic of", screen reader users hear that information twice. Screen readers already announce the element's role — typically as "image" or "graphic" — before reading the alt attribute. Starting alt text with one of these phrases produces output like "image, image of a sunset," which is redundant and clutters the listening experience.

This affects people who rely on screen readers (such as JAWS, NVDA, or VoiceOver) to navigate web content. Redundant announcements slow down comprehension and make pages feel noisy. For users scanning through many images on a page, repeated "image of" prefixes add up quickly, making it harder to find the content they need.

Why this matters

This rule relates to WCAG success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content) at Level A. That criterion requires all non-text content to have a text alternative that serves the same purpose. While redundant prefixes don't technically remove information, they reduce the quality of the text alternative by adding unnecessary words that the assistive technology already provides. Good alt text is concise and descriptive — it tells the user what the image shows without restating what they already know.

How to fix it

Remove the leading phrase ("image of", "photo of", "picture of", or similar) from the alt text. Then make sure the remaining description is specific enough to convey the content or purpose of the image.

A few guidelines for writing good alt text after removing the prefix:

• Describe what the image actually shows rather than stating that it is an image.
• Be specific. "Golden retriever playing fetch in a park" is more useful than "a dog."
• Keep it concise. One or two sentences is usually enough.
• If the image is decorative and carries no meaning, use an empty alt attribute (alt="").

Examples

Incorrect: alt text starts with a redundant phrase

<img src="sunset.jpg" alt="image of a sunset over the ocean">

A screen reader announces this as something like: "image, image of a sunset over the ocean." The word "image" appears twice.

<img src="team.jpg" alt="photo of the engineering team at the 2024 retreat">

Announced as: "image, photo of the engineering team at the 2024 retreat."

Correct: descriptive alt text without the prefix

<img src="sunset.jpg" alt="Sunset over the ocean with orange and purple clouds">

A screen reader announces: "image, sunset over the ocean with orange and purple clouds." Clear, no redundancy.

<img src="team.jpg" alt="Engineering team at the 2024 retreat">

Announced as: "image, engineering team at the 2024 retreat."

Correct: decorative image with empty alt

If the image carries no meaningful content, use an empty alt attribute so screen readers skip it entirely:

<img src="decorative-border.png" alt="">

Learn more:

W3C Reference

Understanding Non-text Content (WCAG 2.1)

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W3C Reference

HTML Techniques: Using alt attributes on img elements

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MDN Reference

img: The Image Embed element

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