There are currently inconsistencies with how <img> elements with an SVG are announced by VoiceOver - depending on whether the SVG has a <title> or not, whether the <img> has an explicit additional role="img" or not, and whether or not alt="..." attribute is present. Further, there are inconsistencies between macOS/Safari/VoiceOver and iOS/Safari/VoiceOver. See this small set of tests https://codepen.io/patrickhlauke/full/XbjYGZ/ (this includes current results of how these different scenarios are announced, but copying them here for clarity as well): <img src="[svg without title]" alt="Box"> macOS/Safari/VoiceOver: Box, empty group / iOS/Safari/VoiceOver: Box, image <img src="[svg without title]" alt="Box" role="img"> macOS/Safari/VoiceOver: Box, image / iOS/Safari/VoiceOver: Box, image <img src="[svg with title]" alt="Box"> macOS/Safari/VoiceOver: Box, group > Test, empty group > end of, Box, group / iOS/Safari/VoiceOver: (completely skipped) <img src="[svg with title]" alt="Box" role="img"> macOS/Safari/VoiceOver: Box, image / iOS/Safari/VoiceOver: Box, image <img src="[svg with title]"> macOS/Safari/VoiceOver: Test, empty group / iOS/Safari/VoiceOver: (completely skipped) <img src="[svg with title]" role="img"> macOS/Safari/VoiceOver: image / iOS/Safari/VoiceOver: image There are further oddities depending on whether the SVG is an external URL, or a data URL, reported by Barry Pollard here https://www.tunetheweb.com/experiments/svg-images/ (see https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=145263#c13) Successor to https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=145263
<rdar://problem/78780518>
FYI, I did NOT actually see any noticeable difference for External SVGs nor inlined data SVGs (so probably can remove those test cases from my sample page - was trying out lots of things!). However I did note that an SVG with a <title> element without an explicit role, didn’t show in the MacOS Voiceover Image Rotor - it was completely ignored from that (like it is on iOS) even though it was keyboard accessible from Voiceover and read out. I guess because the role is Group rather than Img, so not eligible for Image Rotor?
I have experienced similar behaviour when an <svg> is used directly. <button><svg role="img"><title>Close</title></svg></button> VoiceOver only announces 'button' and not the title text.