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Currently the spec says under http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/text-level-semantics.html#the-img-element ( revision 1.4067): ↪If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to the empty string ... "User agents may provide the user with a notification that an image is present but has been omitted from the rendering." change this to "User agents should provide the user with a notification that an image is present but has been omitted from the rendering." ↪If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to a value that isn't empty ... "User agents may provide the user with a notification that an image is present but has been omitted from the rendering." change this to "User agents should provide the user with a notification that an image is present but has been omitted from the rendering." Rationale: for users of graphical user agents that have images disabled unless an indication that an image has been replaced or not rendered, there is no mechanism for the user to identify where an image may be on the page and therefore no way for the user to query the image and display it or copy it or obtain the the image address, if the user so desires. Quite often users may have images turend off to save on bandwidth, but want to display an image for further investigation, but they cannot unless they know an image is there.
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the tracker issue; or you may create a tracker issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document: http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html Status: Rejected Change Description: no spec change Rationale: "may" is the appropriate conformance requirement here. I agree with your rationale, but the spec is not the place to dictate user interface. This kind of suggestion is more appropriate for a spec like the UAAG.