lee352•1mo ago

A client's new website went live and we missed the alt text on every single image

It was a bad Tuesday when I got a call from a regular client who is blind. He said his screen reader was just saying 'image' over and over on their new site. I checked the code and sure enough, we had rushed the launch and skipped all the alt descriptions. I spent the next two days going back through 47 product photos to write proper text. What's your go-to method for making sure alt text doesn't get missed in a last-minute push?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel2801mo agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, I used to think alt text was a final polish step, but a similar mess-up made me switch. Now I'm totally with @sam_hart on baking it into the process early. We set up a simple rule in our content spreadsheet where the image cell turns red if the alt column is empty. It's a visual kick that works for our team.

paigewood26d ago

Yeah, that's rough... I had to do the same scramble once. I like what @sam_hart said about making it a required field, so we started adding alt text right in the image file name before it even goes to the dev. It's a small extra step that saves a huge headache later.

sam_hart1mo ago

Been there, it's a brutal way to find out. I started adding alt text as a required field in our project management tool right next to the image upload. If the field is empty, the task can't be marked as done. It forces everyone to deal with it during the build, not as an afterthought. It's not perfect but it catches most of the oversights before they go live.