diff --git a/video_embed_field.field.inc b/video_embed_field.field.inc
index cd42fb2..6237394 100644
--- a/video_embed_field.field.inc
+++ b/video_embed_field.field.inc
@@ -439,9 +439,11 @@ function video_embed_field_field_formatter_view($entity_type, $entity, $field, $
         '#markup' => $item['description'],
         '#suffix' => '</div>',
       );
+      $alt = $item['description'];
     }
     else {
       $description = array();
+      $alt = '';
     }
 
     // Render the field.
@@ -478,7 +480,7 @@ function video_embed_field_field_formatter_view($entity_type, $entity, $field, $
 
         $element[$delta] = array(
           '#theme' => 'image_formatter',
-          '#item' => array('uri' => $item['thumbnail_path']),
+          '#item' => array('uri' => $item['thumbnail_path'], 'alt' => $alt),
           '#image_style' => $display['settings']['image_style'],
           '#path' => isset($path) ? $path : '',
         );
@@ -500,6 +502,7 @@ function video_embed_field_field_formatter_view($entity_type, $entity, $field, $
             '#theme' => 'video_embed_field_colorbox_code',
             '#image_url' => $item['thumbnail_path'],
             '#image_style' => $display['settings']['image_style'],
+            '#image_alt' => $alt,
             '#video_url' => $item['video_url'],
             '#video_style' => $display['settings']['video_style'],
             '#video_data' => unserialize($item['video_data']),
diff --git a/video_embed_field.module b/video_embed_field.module
index c1db253..2e65ec6 100644
--- a/video_embed_field.module
+++ b/video_embed_field.module
@@ -129,6 +129,7 @@ function video_embed_field_theme() {
       'variables' => array(
         'image_url' => NULL,
         'image_style' => 'normal',
+        'image_alt' => NULL,
         'video_url' => NULL,
         'video_style' => NULL,
         'video_data' => array(),
@@ -433,6 +434,7 @@ function template_preprocess_video_embed_field_embed_code(&$variables) {
  *   An associative array containing:
  *   - image_url: The image URL.
  *   - image_style: The image style to use.
+ *   - image_alt: The image ALT attribute.
  *   - video_url: The video URL.
  *   - video_style: The video style to use.
  *   - video_data: An array of data about the video.
@@ -447,7 +449,7 @@ function theme_video_embed_field_colorbox_code($variables) {
 
   $image = array(
     '#theme' => 'image_formatter',
-    '#item' => array('uri' => $variables['image_url']),
+    '#item' => array('uri' => $variables['image_url'], 'alt' => $variables['image_alt']),
     '#image_style' => $variables['image_style'],
     '#path' => $path,
   );