The image barrier most sites do not know they have
Every image on a website needs a written description, called alt text, so that people using a screen reader know what it shows. When it is missing, a blind user hears nothing useful, or worse, the screen reader reads out the raw file name. Missing and poor alt text is consistently one of the most common accessibility failures found on the web, and a frequent WCAG and European Accessibility Act problem. This free checker finds every image on a page and tells you exactly which ones need work. It runs entirely in your browser.
How it works
- Paste the page HTML from View Page Source or your CMS.
- See every image graded: good, decorative, needs checking, or a problem, with a score.
- Get the fix for each one, so you know what to change and why.
What good alt text looks like
Good alt text is a short, plain description of what the image shows or does, usually a sentence. It does not start with "image of" or "picture of", because the screen reader already announces that it is an image. It is not the file name, and it is not a vague word like "photo". For a photo of your team, "Our support team outside the community centre" is far more useful than "team-photo.jpg". This tool flags file-name alt, generic alt, redundant phrasing and over-long text so you can tighten each one.
Decorative images are different
Not every image needs a description. Borders, spacers and images that only repeat something already written should be hidden from screen readers with an empty alt (alt=""). That is deliberate and correct, and this checker treats it as decorative rather than an error. The real problem is an image with no alt attribute at all, because then the screen reader has nothing to work with and often falls back to the file name. Knowing the difference between an empty alt and a missing alt is the heart of getting images right.
Fast to find, human to finish
A tool can tell you an image has no alt text, or that its alt is a file name, in an instant, which is exactly the kind of check you should automate. What a tool cannot do is see your image, so it cannot confirm the words actually match the picture. That final step needs a person. Use this to catch every missing and obviously poor description quickly, then read through the rest to make sure each one is accurate. It pairs with our colour contrast checker (the other most common failure) and the WCAG 2.2 AA checklist for the full picture. Everything runs in your browser, and the images themselves are never loaded or uploaded.