title: What is the purpose of the alt attribute for an image?
body: <p>What exactly is the intended use of the <code>alt</code> attribute on <code>&lt;img&gt;</code> tags?</p>
  
  <p>Should it describe the image, or should it provide meaningful replacement text for screen-readers (and people who have images turned off)?</p>
  
  <p>For example, if I have a short biography of a person on my website, and include a small photo of them, is it really meaningful to visually impaired users to have "Photo of John Smith" read out to them?</p>