Start with the image's job
Missing alternative text is a useful finding, but it is not permission to invent a caption. Before changing code, decide what the visitor needs from the image in this specific place.
W3C's image decision tree distinguishes meaning, function and decoration. An informative photograph needs a concise alternative that communicates its relevant meaning. An image that operates as a link or button needs an understandable destination or action. A purely decorative image can use an empty alternative. A complex chart needs equivalent information that a short caption cannot supply.
Three practical examples
A product photograph might show a clasp, seam or finish that is useful to a buyer. Write the detail that matters to that purchase, based on the actual photograph. Do not generate a description from a filename or assume that an unseen product has a particular feature.
An icon inside an otherwise unnamed search button needs an accessible name for the search action. Describing the icon's shape alone may leave the control's purpose unclear. Check the entire control before adding another name: a visible label or an existing accessible name can already provide what is needed.
A background flourish beside a heading usually should not repeat that heading to a screen reader. Marking decoration with an empty alternative is different from leaving the attribute absent.
Review the finding and its source
In ADAFix, open the saved finding and inspect its page, selector and captured element evidence. Find the source that actually renders that element. Supported literal HTML, JSX and TSX elements can be reviewed for a deterministic repair. Computed values, ambiguous matches and unsupported templates require developer review.
Provide contextual text yourself, or explicitly identify the image as decorative. Read the proposed diff before applying it. An alternative should communicate the intended content without adding a sales claim or a detail that the image does not establish.
Follow the change to the live page
A proposed patch is not a deployed fix. Keep the original source, the exact change and its reversal instructions. If the change goes through a repository, review the pull request and deploy through your normal process.
Then inspect the same live element. A lower count of image findings across the page is insufficient: the intended image and expected value must match. ADAFix records separate deployed and verified states; its verification workflow requires two matching checks at least ten minutes apart. If identity is ambiguous, investigate rather than calling it verified.
Check meaning as well as markup
Automation can check for an attribute and help preserve a reviewed value. It cannot establish that your wording communicates the right meaning in every context. Review the page with the image unavailable and with a screen reader as part of the broader customer journey.
See [what scanners can and cannot prove](/research/what-accessibility-scanner-can-and-cannot-prove) for the scope of automated findings, and [how ADAFix works](/how-it-works) for the repair workflow.