WCAG and ADA image accessibility basics

If you have heard "your site needs to be ADA compliant" but are not sure what that means for your images, this is the primer you need.

What WCAG says about images

WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content) requires that all non-text content — images, charts, icons — have a text alternative that serves the same purpose. For most images, that means alt text. For complex images like charts, it may mean a longer description.

Success Criterion 1.4.5 (Images of Text) says you should avoid using images of text where the text can be rendered as actual text. And 2.4.4 (Link Purpose) means linked images need descriptive alt text, not generic labels.

What "ADA compliance" means

The Americans with Disabilities Act does not name specific technical standards, but US courts and the Department of Justice have increasingly treated WCAG conformance as the benchmark for an accessible website. A site with missing alt text across its media library is, by that benchmark, not accessible.

The risk is not theoretical. ADA Title III lawsuits over web accessibility have risen sharply, and missing alt text is one of the easiest defects for a plaintiff to point to.

How to audit your media library

Most WordPress sites accumulate hundreds or thousands of images over years, many uploaded before alt text was a priority. Auditing by hand means opening each image in the Media Library and checking the Alt Text field — impractical at scale.

AltGenie's accessibility scanner runs across your entire library, flags every image missing alt text, detects duplicates (images sharing identical alt text — a common mistake), and gives you a per-image fix action plus an overall accessibility score you can track over time.