JAWs Reader is not reading ALT Text

I was having a similar problem, though not sure how similar my situation is: I was using images as buttons, giving them multiple states and applying triggers to them. NVDA was reading my image file names instead of the alt tags I'd given the images. I was able to resolve the issue by applying the alt tag not only to the image, but also, specifically, to the instance of the image within its Normal state. Also noticing that if I have separate alt tags on the image and the image's normal state, the normal state's alt tag is what gets read.