alt attribute
![In the sky flies a red flag with a white cross whose vertical bar is shifted toward the flagpole.](/Images/godic/202412/20/Dannebrog5421.jpg")
![IE7 renders the alt attribute as tooltip](/Images/godic/202412/20/Ie7_alt_as_tooltip5421.png")
The alt attribute is used in HTML and XHTML documents to specify alternative text (alt text) that is to be rendered when the element to which it is applied cannot be rendered. It is also used by "screen reader" software so that a person who is listening to the content of a webpage (for instance, a person who is blind) can interact with this element. The attribute was introduced in HTML 2 and in HTML 4.01 was required for the img and area tags. It is optional for the input tag and the deprecated applet tag.