Image has no alternative text

Why does it matter?

Screen reader users hear an image by its alternative text. With no alt attribute at all, many screen readers fall back to reading the file name — "IMG underscore 4 0 2 1 dot jay peg" — which is noise at best.

Who it affects: Blind and low-vision people using screen readers, people who turn images off to save data, and search engines.

53.1% of the top million home pages had missing image alt text in 2026. WebAIM Million 2026

What does Lumtera flag?

Images with no alt attribute at all, as an error, and Image blocks whose alternative text was left empty without marking the image decorative, for review: the block writes the same empty alt text whether the field was forgotten or the image was meant to be decorative. Images already named by aria-label or aria-labelledby, marked role="presentation", or hidden from assistive technology are skipped. A linked Image block with empty alt text is reported by the "Link has no text" check instead, so nothing is reported twice.

Check ID image-missing-alt — use it to filter the content report or with wp lumtera issues --rule.

How do I fix it in WordPress?

Select the image and fill in "Alternative text" in the block settings. Describe what the image shows or does in context. If the image is purely decorative, mark it decorative so screen readers skip it: "Mark as decorative" in the Image settings (WordPress 7.1 and later), or "Decorative image" under Accessibility on older versions. Outside the block editor, give decorative images an empty alt (alt="").

In the block editor, the issue opens the image's alternative text field so you can fix it straight away. The alt text manager can also fix the same image everywhere it is used.

Example

<img src="team-photo.jpg">

<img src="team-photo.jpg" alt="Our five-person support team at the Kathmandu office">

How do I check the fix?

1. Update the post. The issue disappears from the Lumtera Accessibility sidebar on the next check, and from the site report on the next scan.
2. Turn on a screen reader (VoiceOver on Mac: Cmd + F5; NVDA on Windows is free) and move through the image. You should hear a description that makes sense in context — or nothing at all for decoration.