Keep assistive technologies focused on what matters. Hide purely visual images from screen readers without removing them from the page.
WordPress now includes a “Mark as Decorative” option in the Image block. When enabled, the image’s alt text field is cleared and the image is given an empty alt="" attribute, signaling to screen readers and other assistive technologies that the image can be safely skipped.
This matters because not every image on a page carries meaningful information. Dividers, background textures, stylistic flourishes, and purely aesthetic photos can create unnecessary noise for users navigating by screen reader. Marking those images as decorative keeps the content experience clean and focused — without hiding the image visually from sighted users.
The option lives directly in the Image block settings in the Gutenberg editor. When you select an image, a “Mark as decorative” toggle appears beneath the alt text field. Enabling it grays out the alt text input and handles the accessibility markup automatically. No custom code, no HTML editing required.
It’s a small but meaningful tool for building more accessible websites right inside the editor.
