A textual description of a graphic for search and retrieval purposes, or for display “behind” an icon in an online system.
Contained within the element <graphic>, this attribute is used to hold a brief description of the actual graphic. This description can be used for searching, to display in place of the graphic in an online system, or to be read by a voice synthesis device for the visually-impaired who cannot see the graphic. (The actual graphic is usually stored in an external file and merely named by the attributes of the <graphic> element.)