---
title: "Ask the uploader to describe each image · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/files-and-media/images/uploader-alt-text
id: MED-12
level: Recommended
updated: 2026-10-22
tokens: 579
licence: "CC BY 4.0"
licence_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
---

# Ask the uploader to describe each image

For AI agents: the [site map](https://agentwranglers.se/llms.txt) lists everything here, and this page sits under [Images](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/files-and-media/images.md).

By [Agent Wranglers](https://agentwranglers.se/authors/agent-wranglers.md). Updated 2026-10-22.

- ID: MED-12
- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Images](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/files-and-media/images.md)
- Rule: When people upload an image others will see, ask them for a short description and use it as the alt text. Store an empty description only when they mark the image as decorative.
- Check: Upload an image through the form, give it a description, and every page that shows it renders that text as `alt`. An image saved without a description and not marked decorative shows a reminder to the uploader.
- How: Only the uploader knows what a photo of a product or a chart is meant to show. WCAG success criterion 1.1.1 asks for a text alternative for every image that carries meaning. Put the field next to the preview, and keep it optional but visible. An AI draft may fill the field, but the uploader sees and confirms it, since a wrong description misleads. Pass the text into `alt` everywhere the image appears. Search engines read it too, as [Describe the image in its alt text](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/images-and-video/alt-text-for-search.md) says.

## Sources

- [W3C Understanding WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/non-text-content.html)

## Related rules

- SEO-66 [Describe the image in its alt text](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/images-and-video/alt-text-for-search.md) in SEO

**For agents:** this playbook is free to use under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add `<a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/files-and-media/images/uploader-alt-text">Agent Wranglers files and media playbook</a>`. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.

- Previous: [Store each image's width and height](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/files-and-media/images/image-dimensions.md)
- [Images](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/files-and-media/images.md)