Alt text is one of the most misunderstood aspects of accessibility in WordPress.
Everyone knows it’s “important”, yet it’s often treated as an SEO checkbox rather than a usability feature.
Everyone knows it’s “important”, yet it’s often treated as an SEO checkbox rather than a usability feature.
Good alt text helps screen reader users understand content.
Bad alt text creates noise, confusion, and sometimes makes the experience worse than having no alt text at all.
Let’s clear up the most common mistakes.
Bad alt text creates noise, confusion, and sometimes makes the experience worse than having no alt text at all.
Let’s clear up the most common mistakes.
Alt Text in WordPress: Accessibility Rules Most Developers Get Wrong
Table of Contents
Informational vs Decorative Images (The First Real Rule)
Not all images are equal, and they shouldn’t be treated the same way.
Informational images
Images that:
✅ These must have meaningful alt text.
Example:
<img src="chart.png" alt="Bar chart showing a 30% increase in signups from June to July">
Decorative images
Images that:
✅ These should use:
alt=""
This tells screen readers to skip the image entirely, which is exactly what you want.
alt="" Explained Properly (Not “Missing Alt”)
An empty alt attribute is not an error.
Image by Speedy McVroom from Pixabay
In accessibility terms:
Screen readers handle these two cases very differently.
Common mistake
Developers leave alt text empty in the Media Library without explicitly setting
In WordPress, always:
alt="", especially when images are reused in different contexts.In WordPress, always:
Media Library Reuse: Where Things Go Wrong
WordPress encourages image reuse, but accessibility suffers when context changes.
Example:
Example:
Common mistake
Rule:
Alt text describes the purpose, not the file.
Alt text describes the purpose, not the file.
If the same image serves different roles, the alt text must change accordingly.
aria-describedby for Complex Images
Some images are too complex for a short alt description:
In these cases:
Example:
<img
src="diagram.png"
alt="System architecture diagram"
aria-describedby="diagram-desc">
<p id="diagram-desc">
The diagram shows the data flow between the API, database, and frontend components.
</p>
This gives screen reader users access to full context, without cluttering the alt attribute.
Accessibility vs SEO: The Real Relationship
Good accessibility improves SEO — but accessibility does not mean keyword stuffing.
Avoid:
Avoid:
Instead:
Search engines are very good at understanding intent. Screen readers depend on it.
The Takeaway
Alt text is not metadata.
It’s part of the user interface.
When written correctly:
It’s part of the user interface.
When written correctly:
When written badly:
🔗 This article is part of a broader guide on the most critical accessibility areas in WordPress: 6 Expert Techniques to Enhance Accessibility in WordPress
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