How to fix role img alt on Squarespace

Steps for Squarespace

1. In Squarespace, go to Pages → select the page → click Edit.
2. For an Icon Block, click the icon to open its settings; look for an 'Alt Text' or 'Accessible Label' field and fill it in.
3. For SVG or Code Blocks containing role="img" HTML, click the block → Edit → and update the HTML directly to include aria-label="[description]" on the role="img" element.
4. For template-level icon fonts (e.g. social icons in the footer), go to Design → Custom CSS and inject a JavaScript fix via Settings → Advanced → Code Injection (header or footer): add a <script> that finds each [role='img'] without aria-label and adds one.
5. Squarespace does not expose direct theme file editing, so Code Injection is the primary route for template-controlled elements.
6. Validate with the axe browser extension after saving.

What is role img alt?

When a developer uses the HTML attribute `role="img"` on an element that isn't a native `<img>` tag — for example, an icon font character, an SVG group, a `<div>` containing a decorative graphic, or an emoji used as meaningful content — they are telling browsers and assistive technologies "treat this as an image." However, unlike a real `<img>` tag which has an `alt` attribute, these elements have no built-in place to put a text description. The `aria-label` attribute fills that gap: it provides the invisible text label that a screen reader will read aloud instead of the visual graphic. If `aria-label` (or an equivalent like `aria-labelledby`) is missing or empty, the element is announced to blind or low-vision users as an unlabelled image — or skipped entirely — making it meaningless.

WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Level A — the most basic accessibility level) requires that all non-text content has a text alternative. Failing this criterion means your store is inaccessible to the roughly 7–8 million people in the US alone who use screen readers, exposing you to legal risk under the ADA, Section 508, and equivalent laws in the EU (EAA 2025), UK, Australia, and Canada — accessibility lawsuits against ecommerce stores have increased sharply year-over-year. Beyond legal risk, unlabelled icons and graphics mean blind shoppers cannot understand product badges, trust seals, star ratings rendered as icon fonts, or navigation icons — directly harming conversions and checkout completion rates. Google also uses accessibility signals as part of its overall quality assessment, so a deeply inaccessible site can experience reduced crawl quality over time.

See the complete Role img alt guide for every platform and the full background.