Alt text on product images

[dreamcatcher217]

Hi, I have a client who requires alt text on product images for her visually impaired customers. How would I go about adding this?

[Kassi_]

Hey there, @dreamcatcher217 - 

Welcome to the Community. 

I appreciate you taking the time to reach out about this feature. Unfortunately, we don't have anything available like this. 

It would be a Feature Request for our Product Team. I would be happy to tag this for them internally. 

Thank you! 

[3elinda]

Hi Kassi,

Any news on adding alt tags on product images?

This is a critical feature and a legal requirement. Failing to provide alt text on images is the most common cause for filing an ADA lawsuit against businesses for non-accessible websites.

From ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES CANADA:
"Including alt text in digital documents, websites, and mobile apps is a requirement of the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)"

Also: Maintaining an ADA-compliant website helps protect your business against lawsuits and fines in addition to providing needed accommodations for your potential customers.

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10900-ada-website-requirements.html

Can the development team add alt tags to product images by allowing the "SEO Title" and/or the "SEO Description" to populate an alt tag included in the corresponding image/s for the site item?

Where there are multiple images per product, perhaps the "SEO Description" could populate the main image, and the "SEO Title" could populate the other images + add a differentiator (e.g. 03, 04, 05, etc.) to the end of alt tag for the 3rd image and onwards as follows. This would also address the requirement not to repeat alt text on images:

Main image – alt text: SEO Description
Image 2 – alt text: SEO Title
Image 3 – alt text: SEO Title with "03" added to the end

Many thanks for your help!

[Kassi_]

Hi @3elinda,

Welcome to the Community! Appreciate you taking the time to check in on the availability of the alternative text on product images. As of now, this would still be a Feature Request for our Product Team. 

If you have some time, could you add your post to our Ideate Board? Here is a place where suggest moving Feature Requests, so you can see once the status has been updated by one of our Community Moderators. 

Thank you! 

[3elinda]

Hi @Kassi_ 

Done! and I used the link you provided.

For anyone interested, you can find it here: https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Square-Online/Adding-Alt-Text-to-product-images/idi-p/622970

@Kassi_ worth noting when I go back to view the link above, it tells me that I am viewing the USA community and asks if I would like to switch to the Canadian.

All the best,
Belinda

[Kassi_]

Oh shoot! Thank you for letting me know, @3elinda. 

I have moved your post over to the Canadian Ideate Board. If you click the link now, you should see it there. 

[3elinda]

No worries, @Kassi_ !

It would be best to keep it in the USA AND Canadian strings. Many ADA lawsuits against businesses for non-accessible websites are initiated in the USA.

[3elinda]

Hi @Kassi_ 

It has been a month, so I'm following up on this request. Given the legal ramifications for not including alt text on images, I'm doing my due diligence to ensure this requirement isn't forgotten.

Hopefully, my suggestions help pave the way to a speedy solution to ensure all Square/Weebly website users (USA AND CANADA) can add alt text to product images to protect themselves from litigation.

Thanks for your help!
Belinda

[dreamcatcher217]

Belinda, 

thank you for keeping on this! In the end we switched platforms because of this. It’s definitely necessary and a legal requirement and I had even called them and challenged them on it and still two years later nothing. It saddens me how little corporations like this care about accessibility. Thank you for keeping on them! 

[LaPoulette]

Hi,
I'm here for the same reasons. I'm looking for ways to add alt text to all of the images on my Square page and shop, items included. As the person above stated, using SEO content sounds like something that could be easily implemented by Square. Why is this overlooked by the development team? It's a legal requirement for websites.