Title: Automatic Alternative Text Author: Jacob Peattie Published: August 21, 2016 Last modified: July 1, 2019 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/automatic-alternative-text/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=1904567) This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress. ![](https://ps.w.org/automatic-alternative-text/assets/icon.svg?rev=1904567) # Automatic Alternative Text By [Jacob Peattie](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jakept/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/automatic-alternative-text.1.1.4.zip) * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/automatic-alternative-text/#description) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/automatic-alternative-text/#reviews) * [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/automatic-alternative-text/#installation) * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/automatic-alternative-text/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/) ## Description Automatic Alternative Text makes accessible images easy and fast by automatically generating alt text for images with [Microsoft’s Cognitive Services Computer Vision API](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/services/cognitive-services/computer-vision/). The Computer Vision API’s algorithms analyze the content found in an image and generates complete sentences of human readable language describing what is found in the image. The Automatic Alternative Text plugin gets this description and adds it as the alt text for each image uploaded while the plugin is active. ### Privacy The image, voice, video or text understanding capabilities of Automatic Alternative Text uses Microsoft Cognitive Services. Microsoft will receive the images, audio, video, and other data that you upload (via this app) for service improvement purposes. To report abuse of the Microsoft Cognitive Services to Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Cognitive Services website at https://www.microsoft.com/cognitive-services, and use the “Report Abuse” link at the bottom of the page to contact Microsoft. For more information about Microsoft privacy policies please see their privacy statement here: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=521839. ## Screenshots * [[ * Dismissable admin notice on installation. * [[ * Plugin settings. * [[ * An uploaded image with automatic alt text added. ## Installation The two methods of installing the plugin are: 1. Search for “Automatic Alternative Text” in Plugins > Add New and click the Install button. 2. Unzip the archive and put the `automatic-alt-text` folder into your site’s `/wp- content/plugins/` folder. Then activate Automatic Alt Text from the Plugins menu. #### Usage Before the plugin will work you need to supply an API key and endpoint for Microsoft’s Cognitive Services Computer Vision API. You can learn how to sign up for a free key [here](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/azure/cognitive-services/computer-vision/vision-api-how-to-topics/howtosubscribe). Go to the Settings > Media page to enter the key and endpoint from Microsoft. Once your key and endpoint are entered any image you upload from that point forward will automatically have its alt text set to a caption supplied by Microsoft’s Cognitive Services where possible. ## FAQ Why aren’t my images receiving alt text? There’s several reasons an image might not get alt text: 1. Your API key is missing or incorrect. Make sure that your key is saved and accurate in Settings > Media. Also make sure that the key is for the Computer Vision API. 2. The service is not confident enough in the caption. By default the plugin will only use the received caption as alt text if the service is at least 15% confident in the result. You can adjust this confidence threshold in Settings > Media. 3. The service cannot connect to your server or is prevented from accessing the image for any reason. Try entering your image URL on [this page](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/services/cognitive-services/computer-vision/) to see if the service can connect outside the context of this plugin. 4. You’ve exceeded your key’s request quota. You can view your usage and upgrade your quota [here](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/try/cognitive-services/my-apis/). Can I automatically add alt text to images I’ve already uploaded? Not yet. I might add this functionality in a future version. ## Reviews ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8afde48265c6f7b2cb0068631d059deeb756836aa8ae57080b6dbd485e505094? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Horrible set up](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/horrible-set-up/)󠁿 [bestofbonus](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bestofbonus/) August 28, 2020 Which normal person is supposed to navigate through the horrendous Microsoft Azure setup process. Plus you’re being charged after 12 months. No guidance or tutorial is provided. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/35899213e2a907966401a9df222fbaececc9e3eebae3a3afefe68b81a924d4de? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Great plugin, But how to add ALT to previously uploaded images?](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-plugin-but-how-to-add-alt-to-previously-uploaded-images/)󠁿 [serezh4](https://profiles.wordpress.org/serezh4/) July 7, 2019 3 replies How to add ALT to previously uploaded images? ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3c2a9b433b18cfb942c353b45e42e09f889d93973c5b9fcc5f7e7e3c65436111? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Great plugIn to use the Cloud](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-plugin-to-use-the-cloud/)󠁿 [Fabian_Niesen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/fabian_niesen/) January 3, 2019 Only 2 things are missing to be a 5 Star plugin: A way to handle already uploaded images and a way to change the language of the generated description text. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5d6c97dff3e7087c525fb1997454a856d39a29600cead4e19a8333b39917bd3? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Works well but more involved on high security servers](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-not-work-976/)󠁿 [IDWD](https://profiles.wordpress.org/guardian88/) October 26, 2018 1 reply We have reached out to the developer of this plugin with our concerns but we were ignored in the forum. We even reached out to Azure and the Computer Visions community which all pointed us back to the plugin author. We even paid to have a Microsoft engineer look into this issue via support ticket in the Azure dashboard to no avail. We have spent dozens and dozens of hours attempting to make this plugin work and have received zero support or help from the plugin author. We do not recommend. 10/25/18 Update – After working with the developers with Microsoft Azure for a few weeks we were able to get the plugin to work as advertised. We did find permissions that needed to be addressed in order for the plugin to work. IF you have a security with high or above average security there is a level of customization you will have to do to get the plugin to work, but if you do it right it will work. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8d0745e7f85d66da861307fab5bf28567029365173878b204555119b5fa76d4b? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Great plugin beyond of doubt](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-plugin-beyond-of-doubt/)󠁿 [Nazmul Haque Sajol](https://profiles.wordpress.org/nhsajolbd/) September 20, 2016 It’s a great plugin to increase images accessibility. But if i have already a website with ton images, it’s not so helpful for previous images. I’m really impressed. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9c4e2e01adcf20163f20e6611828b92f0ac7c1b27d849c02a94644e530ca789c? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Have to try now](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/have-to-try-now/)󠁿 [Siam ลอตเตอรี่](https://profiles.wordpress.org/siamlottery/) September 3, 2016 I have to back my home and try it, Thanks [ Read all 7 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/reviews/) ## Contributors & Developers “Automatic Alternative Text” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ Jacob Peattie ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jakept/) * [ bwagdrive ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bwagdrive/) [Translate “Automatic Alternative Text” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/automatic-alternative-text) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/automatic-alternative-text/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/automatic-alternative-text/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/automatic-alternative-text/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/automatic-alternative-text/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.1.4 * Fix an error that would occur if the API returned a 200 response but no captions. #### 1.1.3 * Support newer endpoint URLs that are missing the API endpoint, since Azure does not include this in the resource overview anymore. #### 1.1.2 * Fix admin notice appearing even when dismissed. #### 1.1.1 * Fix broken link in admin notice. #### 1.1 * Added setting for Endpoint URL, to support API changes. * Changed help links to up-to-date URLs. #### 1.0.1 * Fixed typo in settings. #### 1.0 * First release. ## Meta * Version **1.1.4** * Last updated **7 years ago** * Active installations **100+** * WordPress version ** 4.4 or higher ** * Tested up to **5.2.24** * Tags * [accessibility](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/accessibility/)[gallery](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/gallery/) [image](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/image/)[images](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/images/) [media](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/media/) * [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/automatic-alternative-text/advanced/) ## Ratings 4.1 out of 5 stars. * [ 4 5-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/reviews/?filter=5) * [ 2 4-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/reviews/?filter=4) * [ 0 3-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/reviews/?filter=3) * [ 0 2-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/reviews/?filter=2) * [ 1 1-star review ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/reviews/?filter=1) [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ Jacob Peattie ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jakept/) * [ bwagdrive ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bwagdrive/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/automatic-alternative-text/)