Empty Alt Text (alt="") for Decorative Images
An empty alt attribute (alt="") tells assistive technology an image is decorative and should be skipped entirely. This is correct and distinct from a missing alt attribute, which forces screen readers to announce the filename or generic fallback instead.
Why it matters
Most audits flag alt="" as an error. It is not. An empty alt on a decorative image is correct, and "fixing" it by adding descriptive text actually harms users by making screen readers announce clutter for spacers, dividers, and flourishes. Flagging it alongside genuinely missing alt text produces false positives that undermine audit credibility. Empty alt is the right answer.
How it works
When an img tag has alt="" (an empty string), screen readers receive the instruction that this image is decorative and skip it. The HTML spec and WCAG both recognise this as the correct way to handle images that convey no information. An image with no alt attribute at all forces the screen reader to announce the filename or a generic fallback label instead. That is noise for the user.
What does not matter
The presence of alt="" does not harm SEO or accessibility. Some audits flag it as a defect and recommend adding alt text to "fix" it, which makes decorative images more annoying for screen reader users. A page is not broken because it has decorative images correctly marked with empty alt. A page is broken when meaningful images lack alt text.
Code example
Here is a decorative divider with correct empty alt, then an incorrect "fix" that harms accessibility:
<!-- Correct: decorative divider with empty alt -->
<hr />
<!-- OR, if using an image -->
<img src="divider.svg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" />
<!-- Incorrect "fix": someone adds descriptive alt to a decorative image -->
<img src="divider.svg" alt="decorative line separator" />
<!-- Screen readers now announce this noise on every page load -->
The first version is correct. A screen reader skips it. The second "fixes" a non-problem and makes the page harder to navigate.
How Scalpel shows it
The Media tab counts empty-alt images separately from missing-alt images. If your page has decorative images correctly marked with alt="", Scalpel does not flag them as problems. The separate count lets you distinguish between a genuine accessibility gap (missing alt on meaningful images) and correct decorative-image markup (empty alt on spacers/dividers).