Making your WordPress media library accessible (BFSG)

Germany’s Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG, the statute text) has applied since 28 June 2025. For many websites that means, in concrete terms: all meaningful images need a meaningful alt text, and decorative images need a deliberately empty one. If you did not do this from the start, you face a grown media library with hundreds of images without a description. This guide works through the cleanup step by step. Alt text (alternative text) describes an image for people who cannot see it and is read aloud by screen readers. Sources: W3C Images Tutorial and WCAG.

Quick check

1. Survey the stock: how many images have no alt text?
2. Separate decorative and meaningful images.
3. Add alt text; for many images use an AI first pass and review.
4. Give new uploads an alt text right away.
5. Clarify data protection: with AI alt text the image goes to an AI provider, which requires a DPA.

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Step 1: survey the stock

Get an overview of how many images in the media library have no alt text. The list view of the media library gives a rough estimate; an accessibility checker that crawls the pages and reports missing alt attributes is more precise. Free checkers are WAVE and the accessibility check in Lighthouse (Chrome DevTools).

Step 2: decorative or meaningful

Not every image needs a description. An abstract background pattern, a purely ornamental line: decorative, empty alt text so the screen reader skips it. A product photo, a chart, a photo that makes a point: meaningful, needs an alt text. This classification cannot be automated – it is an editorial decision.

Examples:

Image	Classification	Alt text
Product photo	meaningful	Red T-shirt, front view, size M
Chart	meaningful	Bar chart: visits rise from 800 in January to 1,400 in June
Ornamental line between two sections	decorative	empty (alt="")
Photo with a message	meaningful	A person in a wheelchair rolls up a ramp into a shop

Step 3: add the alt text

For a manageable number of images this can be done by hand in the media library. For several hundred images it is not feasible in everyday editorial work – here an AI-assisted first pass helps: the tool generates a suggestion, you review and correct it. What matters is that the description fits the context of the page and contains no filler.

Step 4: secure new uploads

So the problem does not grow back, every new upload should get an alt text right away – generated automatically and reviewed before publication.

Where IMG Performer fits in

The Pro version of IMG Performer generates alt text on upload using AI and can go through the existing media stock retroactively. The suggestions land in the regular alt-text field of the media library, where you review and adjust them.

For the AI alt text you store your own API key and choose the AI model yourself, including European providers such as Mistral. The image goes to the chosen provider for this, which requires a DPA. Background: GDPR-compliant image optimization with AI alt text.

See also: our guide to the alt text generator for WordPress.

Disclaimer

Legal note: general context, not legal advice. The binding sources are the original text of the German Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) and the guidance of the responsible authorities. As of September 2026.

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