Acute SEO Team 
Written by Derrick Tulali — SEO Expert with 9+ Years Experience. Read more about the author.
Most law firm websites have images. Attorney headshots, office photos, courtroom graphics, settlement announcement banners. And most of those images are sitting on the site with no alt text at all. That is a concrete accessibility problem, and in 2026, it is also a legal risk.
This post is not about the theory of ADA compliance. Other posts cover that ground. This one is a practical, step-by-step walkthrough for attorneys and their staff who manage a WordPress site and need to know exactly how to write and add alt text — the right way, not just technically, but purposefully.
Why Alt Text Matters More on a Legal Website Than Most Others?
A screen reader is software that reads a webpage out loud for users who are blind or have low vision. When it hits an image with no alt text, it either reads the file name aloud — something like “IMG_4872.jpg” — or skips it entirely. On a law firm website, where images often serve as visual evidence of your credibility, your team, or your practice areas, skipping or garbling those images pushes a potential client away.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 require that all non-decorative images have a text alternative. This is not optional language. Success Criterion 1.1.1 under WCAG 2.1 is a Level A requirement, meaning it is the minimum baseline. The ADA’s 2024 web accessibility rule reinforced that state and local government entities must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Private law firms also face growing legal exposure when they fail these standards, as plaintiffs’ attorneys actively scan sites for violations.
The image alt text issue is consistently one of the most common failures in ADA-related web lawsuits. It is also one of the easiest to fix — if you know what you are doing.
How to Add Alt Text in WordPress: The Mechanics?
WordPress gives you three places to add or edit alt text. Each one matters.
The first is during image upload. When you upload an image to your media library, WordPress shows you a field on the right side of the screen labeled “Alt Text.” Fill it out before you ever insert the image anywhere. This saves time and ensures the alt text travels with the image across your site.
The second is inside the block editor (Gutenberg). When you click on an image block in a post or page, a panel appears on the right side. Look for the “Alt Text” field under “Block.” You can write or edit alt text directly there without touching the media library.
The third is in the media library itself. Go to Media > Library, click any image, and the attachment details panel includes an alt text field. This is useful for going back through old images you have already published.
All three methods write to the same database field. There is no hierarchy between them — the last one you edit wins.
What to Actually Write in the Alt Text Field?
This is where most law firms go wrong. They either leave the field blank, write “photo,” or paste the file name in. None of those help anyone.
Good alt text describes what is in the image in a way that serves the person who cannot see it. Ask yourself: if I had to describe this image over the phone to someone, what would I say?
For an attorney headshot: “Maria Reyes, founding partner at Reyes Family Law, in a dark blazer against a light background.” That tells a screen reader user who they are looking at and gives context.
For a courtroom graphic: “Illustration of a judge’s gavel on a wooden bench.” Simple and accurate.
For a settlement announcement banner that reads “We recovered $2.4 million for our client”: your alt text should say exactly that — “Banner reading: We recovered $2.4 million for our client.” The text inside the image is content. It needs to be in the alt text.
For a decorative image — say, a generic stock photo of a city skyline used purely for aesthetics — leave the alt text field empty, but add alt=”” in the HTML. This tells screen readers to skip it intentionally, rather than stumbling over it. WordPress handles this when you leave the field blank, but only if the image block is configured correctly.
Images in Your Legal Intake Flow Deserve Special Attention
Attorney websites often have images embedded near or inside contact forms — practice area icons, trust badges, photos of the intake team. If those images have no alt text, a screen reader user navigating to your AI contact form or intake section hits dead ends before they even get to submit their information.
According to Search Engine Journal, accessibility failures on conversion pages — including contact and intake forms — directly reduce the number of leads a site captures. For a law firm, one missed intake call can mean a five-figure case walking out the door.
Every image in your intake flow should have descriptive alt text. If you use icons — a phone icon, a checkmark, a lock symbol for security — write alt text that describes their function, not just their appearance. “Phone icon — call us at 775-555-0100” is more useful than “phone icon.”
Bulk Auditing Your Existing WordPress Site
If your law firm site has been live for more than a year, you likely have dozens or hundreds of images already published with no alt text. Manually reviewing all of them is possible, but slow.
Ahrefs and similar tools can crawl your site and flag images missing alt attributes. This gives you a prioritized list to work through. Start with images on your homepage, your attorney bio pages, and your practice area pages — those are the highest-traffic spots and the most likely to be reviewed in any accessibility audit.
Acute SEO AI offers an AI accessibility scanner that checks your WordPress site against WCAG 2.1 Level AA criteria, including missing or inadequate alt text, and flags issues by page priority. For law firms managing large sites, this kind of automated detection cuts audit time significantly. You can also read what our clients say about the experience of working through an accessibility remediation project.
The Yoast SEO blog has written about the relationship between alt text, image SEO, and accessibility — they overlap more than most people realize. Properly written alt text helps both screen readers and Google’s image indexing systems understand your content.
A Common Mistake Law Firms Make With Staff Photos
Attorney bio pages almost always have headshots. And those headshots almost always have alt text written by whoever built the site years ago — usually something like “attorney” or “lawyer photo” or nothing at all.
The specific identity of the person in the photo matters. A prospective client using a screen reader who lands on your attorney profile page should know whose photo they are next to. “Attorney John Kim, personal injury lawyer at Kim & Associates” is specific and useful. “Attorney photo” is not.
If your firm has had staff changes, the alt text on those headshots may still reference attorneys who no longer work there. This is worth auditing, both for accessibility and for accuracy.
Keeping Alt Text Consistent Going Forward
The real problem at most law firms is not fixing existing images — it is building a habit so new images get alt text from day one. The easiest fix is adding alt text requirements to your content publishing checklist. If you use a content management workflow or have someone handle your blog, make image alt text a required field before any post goes live.
If your site runs on a WordPress web design and development framework with custom templates, a developer can also add validation that warns editors when they insert an image block without alt text. It is a small friction point that prevents ongoing gaps.
Moz has documented how accessibility improvements that reduce user friction — including proper image labeling — tend to correlate with lower bounce rates and higher time on site. Google’s quality signals pick this up over time.
Take Action Now
Alt text is not a difficult technical task. It is a discipline problem — it gets skipped because people are busy and it feels invisible. But to a blind user trying to evaluate your law firm, it is not invisible at all. It is the difference between understanding your site and leaving it.
If you want a full picture of where your site stands on ADA compliance, the Acute SEO AI accessibility scanner will audit your entire WordPress site and generate a prioritized fix list based on WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards. You can also schedule a consultation to talk through what remediation would look like for your specific firm. Our team’s background includes years of work with law firms on exactly these issues.
Start with your homepage images this week. Open your media library, filter for images with no alt text, and begin writing descriptions. It takes less time than you think, and it makes your site usable for people who would otherwise never be able to reach you.
