Squarespace accessibility and alt text, step by step

Squarespace does not treat every image the same way. An image block has an alt text field that starts empty. A gallery section image borrows its description. A page featured image borrows its file name. A product image borrows the product name. Knowing which rule applies to which image is most of the work.

Squarespace statements on this page come from two Squarespace Help Center articles, both read on October 11, 2026: Add alt text to images for accessibility and SEO, last updated October 1, 2026, and Make your site accessible with built-in features, last updated July 22, 2026. Help articles are revised over time, so if a label below does not match what you see, trust the current article. For the general rules of writing alt text on any platform, see our alt text guide.

What Squarespace builds in, and what stays with you

Squarespace's built-in features article lists what the platform provides and what the site owner has to supply. The split matters, because alt text is only one item on the owner's side.

The article also says Squarespace does not give advice on the accessibility laws or standards that apply to your site, and that you are responsible for making sure your site meets the legal requirements that apply to your business. Squarespace's own accessibility page, read on October 11, 2026, states no WCAG level, and says the end product is sometimes not fully accessible to everyone. We have not reviewed the VPAT, so we make no statement about what it reports. This is general information, not legal advice; see our ADA website guide and EAA guide for which rules may apply.

Two practical consequences. First, the focus outline and the Skip to Content link only appear when someone tabs through a rendered page, so GotAlt cannot see them; the methodology page explains why. Check them with a keyboard, as our guide to testing website accessibility describes. Second, built-in color options are not a contrast result. Our contrast checker compares two colors you supply, and the color contrast guide explains the ratios.

Where each image's alt text comes from

The table lists every image type the Squarespace article names. Two of them cannot have alt text at all, and several have no alt field because the editor reuses a nearby text field instead.

Three things follow from the table.

A blank field is not always a blank result. The article says both that image blocks and auto layouts show no alt text when the field is empty, and that for most areas of a site an image's file name acts as alt text when nothing else is set. Which rule applies depends on the image type in the table. How the page markup represents an empty field, whether as a missing alt attribute or an empty one, is not documented in the article, so check the published page rather than assuming.

A file name is a fallback, not a description. Squarespace recommends following its alt text best practices when you name image files, and lets you rename files in the Asset library. A name like IMG_4021.jpg read aloud tells a screen reader user nothing.

The product name repeats. If you leave a product image's alt text empty, the product name becomes its alt text. A product with five photos then announces the same name five times, whether the photo shows the front, the back or a close-up of the stitching. Fill in the field per image. Our guide to alt text for product images covers what each photo should say.

Step by step: add alt text in each place

These steps follow the Squarespace article. Most start in the Pages panel; Email Campaigns starts in Email Campaigns.

Image blocks

1. Open the Pages panel, click the page with the image block, then click Edit.
2. Click the block, then click the pencil icon on the block.
3. In the image block editor, click the Content tab.
4. Type your description in the Image alt text field. It saves automatically.

Auto layout images (version 7.1)

1. Open the Pages panel, click the page with the auto layout, then click Edit.
2. Hover over the auto layout section and click Edit Content, then open the Content tab.
3. Click the image, and type your description under Image alt text. If the image is not listed, click Elements and switch the Show image toggle on.
4. Click Back and repeat for every image in the auto layout, then click Save.

Product images

1. Open the Pages panel, click the store page, then click into a category or click All.
2. Hover over the product image, click ..., then click Edit metadata.
3. Type up to 200 characters in the Alt text field.
4. Click Apply, then click Save.

Email Campaigns

1. Open Email Campaigns, click Drafts, hover over a draft and click the pencil icon.
2. Click an image, blog or product section, then click the item in the right panel.
3. Type your description under Image alt text. It saves automatically.

Gallery, blog, event and logo images

These have no alt text field. The text you want screen readers to hear has to go into the field the table names for that image type: the gallery description, the post title, the event title or the site title. That is a real constraint, because a blog post title written for readers is often a poor description of the featured photo. If the photo carries information, say it in the post body as well.

What to write

Squarespace's own tips are to describe the image the way you would to someone who could not see it, use keywords naturally without stuffing, stay short (usually 150 to 200 characters), leave out words such as "photo" or "picture", and put spaces between words, not hyphens. Our alt text examples show the same advice applied to real cases. For the file name fallback, replace alt="IMG_4021.jpg" with a description such as alt="Walnut desk lamp with a brass arm, switched on".

The two images Squarespace gives no alt text field

Section background images

Squarespace says alt text is not supported on section background images, and that decorative images such as abstract backgrounds or graphics separating content generally do not need descriptions. The WCAG rule agrees for pure decoration: Success Criterion 1.1.1 says non-text content that is pure decoration must be implemented so assistive technology can ignore it. Squarespace says custom code is an option, but it will not help set it up or troubleshoot it.

The risk is a background that is not decoration: a banner with the offer written into the picture, or a product shot used as the section image. No field exists for it, so the information has to be real text on the page. See WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content for the full rule.

Video block custom thumbnails

A custom thumbnail on a video block cannot have alt text. If the thumbnail is only a still from the video, nothing is lost. If it carries a title or a message, put that in the text around the video, and give the video itself a caption or transcript.

Squarespace's SEO report: a first pass with edges

Squarespace has an SEO report tool that finds images with no alt text. The article says generating suggestions with Squarespace AI works only in Fluid Engine sections on version 7.1, and gives these steps for reviewing, editing and saving the suggestions:

1. Open the SEO/AI Visibility panel.
2. In the Your SEO Completion Score section, click Improve with AI.
3. Review the images flagged as missing alt text, then click Edit or Regenerate to change a suggestion.
4. When you are ready, click Save and continue.

Three limits are worth knowing. The report checks image blocks, gallery sections and auto layouts, and does not scan images added to collection items. Generating alt text with Squarespace AI is available only in Fluid Engine sections on version 7.1. And the report finds missing alt text: it has no way to tell you whether a suggested sentence is true of the photo. Treat every suggestion as a draft and read it against the picture, as our guide to AI alt text accuracy explains.

What GotAlt checks on a published Squarespace page, and what it cannot see

GotAlt does not log in to Squarespace or install anything. It reads the page the way an ordinary visitor's browser receives it. That makes it a check on the result, which is what a visitor with a screen reader actually meets.

What it checks

• The free scan runs 16 rule-based checks on the HTML your site sends, listed on the methodology page. For images, it reports an img with no alt attribute as critical, and alt text that is a file name or a placeholder such as "image" as moderate.
• The same scan reports links and buttons with no accessible name, form fields with no label, a skipped heading level, a missing page title and an undeclared page language. Our heading checker and link text checker go deeper on two of those.
• The alt text checker and the deep audit download the actual image files and compare each with its alt text using a vision model. They open up to six images per page. The rule checks still cover every image on the page.
• Because it reads the published page, it covers an img element wherever it came from, including images from collection items, which Squarespace's own report does not scan.

What it cannot see

• Anything that is not in the HTML your site sends. An image that a script adds after the page loads is not read.
• Section background images, if the template does not render them as img elements. The alt text checks read img elements only, and Squarespace does not document the markup.
• Pages an ordinary visitor cannot open, such as a page behind a password or an unpublished draft.
• Which Squarespace field produced an image. Use the table above to find where to fix it.
• Computed color contrast, the focus outline, the Skip to Content link, keyboard behavior and screen reader announcements. Static analysis cannot reach these, and the methodology page explains why. Our contrast checker compares two colors you supply, and how to test website accessibility covers the manual checks.

A routine that fits a Squarespace site

1. Scan the page

   Run the live URL through the free scan or the alt text checker and note every image or link it flags.

2. Find the field

   Match each flagged image to its type in the table above, then open the matching field in the editor.

3. Write for the picture

   Describe what this photo shows in this place. Do not reuse a sentence from another product or section.

4. Check the published page

   Save, reload the live page and run the check again, because the editor cannot show you what the page now says.

5. Repeat after changes

   New products, swapped photos and duplicated sections are where wrong descriptions come back.

Fixing alt text is one part of meeting WCAG, and no tool, GotAlt included, can make a site conform on its own. If you sell to US or EU customers, see our ADA website guide and EAA guide; this is general information, not legal advice. We also have platform guides for Shopify, WordPress, Wix and Webflow.