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Image alt text

The Images box: how many images lack alt text with a Write them button, and the fallback for images without alt text

Alt text is how someone using a screen reader learns what an image shows, and how search engines read it. The Images box helps in two ways:

  • Writing the real thing. It says how many images in the Media Library have no alt text, and Write them opens the Media Library filtered to just those, with an Alt text column showing what each image has. The same Missing alt text button sits at the top of the Media Library's list view.
  • A fallback for images still without: the image's title, its caption, or the title of the page it is on. It is used only for an image with no alt text of its own. An empty alt="" written into the content on purpose (for a decorative image) is left alone, and a title that is just a camera file name (IMG_4021) is skipped. Off by default.

A fallback is better than nothing and worse than a sentence someone wrote, which is why the first half comes first. It applies wherever WordPress draws an image (featured images, the content, galleries); an element that prints its own <img> tag without WordPress's image functions is not changed.