• Success Criterion 1.1.1
  • Conformance level A

Image Alt Text That Repeats a Caption Word for Word

1.1.1 — Non-text Content

Scenario

Setting

A ticket marketplace's seat-selection map

What’s wrong

Redundant alt duplicating adjacent caption/link text, creating double announcements (fails the "equivalent purpose" intent and creates noise. F-adjacent).

Example 

<a href="/seats/section-a">
  <img src="section-a-map.png" alt="Section A seating map">
  <span>Section A seating map</span>
</a>

Why it matters

A buyer scanning seat sections by screen reader hears each section name twice on every link, doubling the time it takes to compare sections.

How to test

Check for double announcements: if an image's alt repeats text already in an adjacent caption or link, a screen reader announces the same content twice — set alt="" instead.

How to fix

Give the image an empty alt when adjacent text already says the same thing. The link's name is then announced once, not twice.

<a href="/seats/section-a">
  <img src="section-a-map.png" alt="">
  <span>Section A seating map</span>
</a>

Outcome

A buyer hears each section name exactly once and compares all options in a fraction of the time.

Who is affected

Screen reader users comparing several similar options in a list feel doubled announcements compound quickly.

Learn more

Related scenarios