Alt Text Issues

Hi there,

We’re getting more serious about accessibility, and noticed that the way this plugin handles the image’s Alt Text could use some improvements – in particular around when the Alt Text field is left blank.

Core/standard WordPress behavior is to use alt=”” when no alt text is provided. This signifies to screen readers than the image is decorative and can be ignored. (That’s what happens with an Image Block, for example.)

However, this widget is using the provided Title. This is bad. The Widget Title and alt text for the image serve completely different purposes. I think there are very few scenarios when the image’s alt text should be identical to the Widget’s title.

If the image is decorative, then the alt text should be blank (but present!) – alt=””
If the image is meaningful, it needs alt text that describes the important information about the image, which is rarely going to be the widget’s title.

In summary:
1) Please stop auto-filling the Alt Text from the title. It does more harm than good.
2) When no Alt Text is provided, please be sure to output alt=””, to clearly indicate its decorative.

Happy to answer questions or discuss further. Thank you!