What the Screen Reader Hears: A Plain-English Alt Text Health Check for Small UK Shops

Alt text has a funny reputation. In some marketing circles it is treated as a secret SEO field: a place to cram in product names, town names and whatever phrase someone wants to rank for. In reality, it is closer to a customer service script. It is what a screen reader user hears when your image cannot be seen, and it should tell them something useful rather than recite a wish list of keywords.

For small UK brands, this is not about becoming an accessibility consultancy overnight. It is about looking at the images you actually publish, working out which ones carry meaning, and describing them in plain English. That is a visual communication job as much as a technical one.

Start with the customer, not the keyword

A good test is to imagine you are on the phone to a customer who cannot see your website. You would not say: “Blue running shoe, best running shoe UK, buy running shoes online.” You would say something like: “A navy blue trail running shoe shown from the side, with a thick pale sole and bright orange laces.”

That is the difference. One version is stuffed with search terms. The other gives a person enough information to understand what is in front of them. Search engines may notice alt text, but that is a side effect. The main job is comprehension.

This matters across your site, not just on product pages. A team photo, a chart in a blog post, a photo of a workshop, a logo in a footer and a decorative swirl on a landing page all need different treatment. The question is always: if this image disappeared, what would the reader lose?

The three-question triage

Before writing anything, run each image through three quick questions.

First: does the image carry information that is not already in the surrounding text? If yes, it needs a description. Second: if the image were removed, would the page still make sense? If yes, the alt text can be short or empty. Third: is there already a caption or nearby sentence doing the same job? If so, do not repeat it word for word.

That last point trips up a lot of teams. If a product page already says “Hand-thrown stoneware mug in oatmeal glaze” directly under the photo, the alt text does not need to parrot the same sentence. It might simply describe the angle: “Mug shown from above, with a visible thumbprint near the handle.” The caption gives the product name; the alt text adds what the picture shows.

Decorative images are the other common confusion. A generic stock photo of leaves behind a contact form does not need a poetic description. It should usually have empty alt text so screen readers skip it. Writing “decorative image of leaves” is not helpful; it just adds noise.

Where to audit first

You do not need to fix thousands of images in one go. Start with the pages that do the most commercial and informational work.

On your homepage, check the hero image and any image-only links. If a picture is the only thing inside a link, its alt text needs to say where the link goes: “View our autumn collection”, not “hero image”.

On product pages, describe the product in a way that helps someone choose. Include the view, colour, material, pattern or distinctive detail. If you sell a waxed cotton jacket, “Waxed cotton jacket in olive green, shown open with a corduroy collar” is more useful than a list of keywords. If the same product appears in several photos, vary the descriptions by angle or detail rather than repeating the same line.

On team and about pages, be careful. A photo of a small team can be described as “Five people standing outside a brick workshop”. But if the names and roles are already listed beside the image, you may not need to repeat them in alt text. Describe what the image adds: the setting, the activity, the mood.

Infographics and charts need more thought. A chart showing sales growth over twelve months should not have alt text that says “bar chart”. It should give the key takeaway: “Bar chart showing online sales rising steadily from January to December, with the sharpest jump in October.” If the chart contains lots of detail, put the full explanation in nearby text and use the alt text as a short summary.

Finally, check the images you send by email and post on social media. Many platforms let you add alt text manually, but it is easy to forget. If a social post relies on an image to make sense, add a description. If the image contains important text, make sure that text also appears in the caption — do not trap it inside a graphic.

Build a one-page house style

You do not need a 40-page accessibility manual. A one-page alt text house style is enough for most small brands, as long as people actually use it.

Set out a few rules. Write in plain English, present tense, and be specific. Lead with the subject. Mention the detail that matters for the context. Avoid opening with “image of” unless the fact that it is an image is important. Avoid keyword lists, emoji, all caps and sales slogans. For product images, include the product type and the distinctive visual detail. For decorative images, use empty alt text. For complex images, write a short summary and link to a longer description.

It also helps to name who is responsible. On a small team, that might be whoever uploads the image, with a quick check from whoever manages the page. Add alt text to your content checklist next to the page title and meta description. If it is not in the checklist, it will be forgotten by Friday.

A quick audit you can do this week

Pick ten important pages: your homepage, three product pages, your about page, two blog posts, a contact page and two social posts. Open each one and inspect the images. For every image, ask the three questions and note whether the alt text is missing, empty, vague or useful.

You will probably find a pattern. Maybe your product images are over-stuffed with keywords. Maybe your blog images all say “blog image”. Maybe your logo has alt text that repeats the company name three times. Fix the worst offenders first, then add the house style to your upload process.

Alt text is not glamorous, but it is one of the clearest examples of whether your visual communication works for everyone. A screen reader user should not have to guess what your shop, your team or your latest offer looks like. Give them the same courtesy you would give any customer: a clear, useful description, written like a human being.