Product image descriptions should not invent attributes for screen-reader users

Classify the image before describing it

The first decision is not what to write but whether to write anything. W3C's images tutorial starts from purpose and context: an image that adds information needs a text alternative conveying that information, an image that performs a function needs its action named, and an image that is decorative needs to be skipped by assistive technology. Two identical photographs can need different treatment on different pages, because context is part of the decision.

Work from the live page, not from the media library. Note where each image sits, what surrounds it, and what a visitor would lose if the image never loaded. That loss, and nothing else, is what the alternative must supply.

Describe verified essentials for informative images

For an informative product photograph, ask what a sighted buyer actually takes from it: the product name on the label, the container type, the quantity shown. Write that, briefly. The description should agree with the page copy beside it, and where the photograph shows something the copy does not say, the right move is to resolve the mismatch, not to smuggle a new claim into the alternative text.

Never let the description outrun the business's records. Composition, purity, grade, origin and efficacy are not visible in a photograph, and typing them into the alternative text asserts them to every screen-reader user whether or not the visible page makes the same claim. If a record genuinely supports an attribute, it belongs in the page's substantiated copy first; the alternative text then describes the image, not the file.

Let decorative images carry no claim

A decorative image is marked so assistive technology skips it, and that is a decision, not an unfinished task. Background textures, divider flourishes and photographs that add atmosphere but no information fall here. Giving them invented descriptions, such as a caption written to fill the field, imposes noise on screen-reader users and can insert claims nobody approved.

The same applies to redundancy: when an image repeats content already present in adjacent text, the tutorial's approach is to treat it as decorative rather than duplicate the information. Record the classification so the next editor does not re-add a description out of tidiness.

Functional images name the action

An image inside a button or link does a job, and its alternative names that job: search, cart, download the policy, enlarge. Describing the picture's appearance instead, a magnifying glass, a cart icon, tells the user what the control looks like and not what it does. Where a control has visible text, the image inside it usually needs no separate label at all.

Icons used as status markers are functional too. A checkmark that means in stock needs its meaning conveyed, while the same checkmark beside the words in stock adds nothing and can be skipped.

Record the pass and its limits

Assign an owner for each template changed and record the date the live page was rechecked after edits, because a corrected field in the media library does not prove the published page outputs it. Confirm how your installed theme or platform stores and renders alternative text before assuming the edit reached the front end.

Keep the scope honest in your records: this pass reviewed image descriptions on the pages listed, nothing more. It is not a WCAG conformance finding, and it does not touch the keyboard, focus, contrast or error-handling questions that a checkout observation covers separately. If a scoped Prism website-review consultation should include how images and their descriptions present your products, provide the public URLs and confirm scope, responsibilities, fees and terms before work begins.

Alternative-text review

Complete one row per image or repeated image type on the live pages in scope. Classify purpose first, then compare the existing description with what is visible and verified. Completing this review does not establish conformance for the page or the site.

Worksheet entries are not submitted by Prism’s worksheet and are not saved by the site. Use record types, availability, anonymized observations, or match/mismatch results. Do not enter government identifiers, customer names or addresses, customer messages, receipt-access links, card or bank details, passwords, or keys. Send sensitive documents only through the provider’s verified secure channel.

These are temporary notes. Leaving or reloading this page may clear them. Worksheet entries are not sent automatically. If you copy notes into the consultation message and submit the form, Prism receives them as part of your request.