How to Check if an Image Has Alt Text: 4 Easy Methods

Why Alt Text Matters Alt text (alternative text) is a short written description added to an image via the alt attribute in HTML. It serves two critical purposes: It allows screen readers to describe images to visually impaired users It gives search engines context to understand what an image depicts According to the WebAIM Million 2025 report, 95.9% of home pages have detectable WCAG failures , and missing alt text remains the single most common accessibility error found on the web. Method 1: Inspect the Page Source (View Source) The simplest way to check alt text is to view the raw HTML source: Open the page in your browser Right-click anywhere and select View Page Source (or press Ctrl+U / Cmd+U ) Use Ctrl+F / Cmd+F to search for <img For each image tag, look for the alt attribute Example of properly formatted alt text: <img src= "photo.jpg" alt= "A woman reading a book in a library" > If the alt attribute is missing entirely, or if it's present but empty ( alt="" ), the image may ne