Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Top Right MenuHomeGlossaryUsability.gov
Provide Text Equivalents for Non-Text Elements
Guideline:
Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element that conveys information.
Comment:
Text equivalents should be used for all non-text elements, including images, graphical representations of text (including symbols), image map regions, animations (e.g., animated GIFs), applets and programmatic objects, ascii art, frames, scripts, images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds, stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and video.

Example:
This image is an example that supports the information above. A related text caption follows this graphic.
Alt text allows the visually impaired user to understand the meaning of the picture.