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WCAG A · 1.1.1Checked on every planEU · US

Images have no text alternative

Do product images need alt text?

Short answer

Yes. Every image that carries meaning needs a text alternative (WCAG 1.1.1, the web accessibility standard). Say what the product photo shows. Give decorative images an empty alt (alt="") so they are skipped.

31%of 162 European shops had this (50)
No. 8most common accessibility issue in the study

Why it matters

Without alt text, a screen reader reads the file name or nothing at all. On a store that can mean a whole product grid of “image, image, image”. WebAIM’s 2026 study found missing alt text on 53.1% of a million home pages.

How to fix it

Shopify

  1. Products: open the product in your admin, click each image and choose “Add alt text”.
  2. Theme images (banners, collection tiles): go to Content, Files, open the image and edit its alt text.
  3. Bulk apps can fill alt text in for you; review what they write before you trust it.

WooCommerce

  1. Go to Media, Library, open the image and fill in “Alternative Text”.
  2. Product gallery images use the same field, so fix them once in the Media Library.
  3. For decorative images, leave the field empty so the theme outputs alt="".

In the code

  1. Add an alt attribute that says what the image shows.
  2. Use alt="" for decorative images so screen readers skip them, never a file name.

Automated tools can tell whether alt text exists, not whether it is good. Only a person can decide if an image is decorative, and whether the alt text says what matters, like the color or pattern of a product.

The standard behind this rule

WCAGW3C, WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A)WCAGW3C WAI, Understanding 1.1.1 Non-text ContentEUDirective (EU) 2019/882, the European Accessibility ActEUETSI, EN 301 549 V3.2.1 (2021-03), clause 9 covers web contentEUDeque, EN 301 549 v4.1.1 is final (WCAG 2.2 AA)DataWebAIM, The WebAIM Million (2026 report)

A plain summary, not legal advice.