Modern digital platforms rely heavily on visuals to engage audiences and convey information quickly. However, as images become more prominent across websites and applications, ensuring accessibility for users relying on screen readers has become a critical responsibility for SaaS providers. Missing or inadequate alternative text (alt text) not only leads to poor user experiences for the visually impaired, but also exposes organizations to compliance risks. One solution that has proven effective for many SaaS teams is using Monsido’s automated scanning platform to detect and help remediate alt text issues across thousands of web elements.

TL;DR: SaaS teams managing large numbers of digital assets are increasingly turning to Monsido to automatically identify and fix alt text issues. Monsido scans sites regularly, flags missing or inadequate descriptions, and provides actionable insights for remediation. This makes compliance with accessibility standards like WCAG 2.1 much easier to maintain at scale. It also boosts inclusivity and SEO through better content labeling.

Alt Text: More Than Just an Accessibility Checkbox

Alt text serves a critical function by providing written descriptions of images for users who rely on screen readers. It’s a key tenet of web accessibility guidelines like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), and non-compliance can mean exclusion for millions of users with visual impairments. Moreover, alt text plays a crucial role in SEO by providing metadata that helps search engines understand image content.

Despite its importance, proper alt text implementation is often overlooked due to the scale and complexity of modern web applications. This is especially true for SaaS organizations with constantly evolving interfaces that may feature thousands of images—from icons and buttons to charts, infographics, and photographs. Manually reviewing and fixing every image is not only inefficient but practically unfeasible in production environments where rapid updates are the norm.

The Challenge of Scale in SaaS Environments

SaaS platforms operate in fast-paced development cycles. Product teams push out features and interface updates frequently, which often introduces new images or changes existing ones. In such scenarios, ensuring that every image has meaningful alt text becomes a moving target. Specific challenges include:

  • Sheer volume of assets: Products may have thousands of icons, user-uploaded images, and diagrams distributed across different modules.
  • Lack of central oversight: Multiple teams may be responsible for different parts of the platform, leading to inconsistencies in how alt text is applied.
  • Time-consuming manual work: Manually scanning each page and validating alt text is not scalable for large systems.
  • Non-compliance risks: Failure to provide accessible content can result in legal action and damage to brand reputation.

This widespread problem has led many organizations to seek automated tools like Monsido, which alleviates the burden by performing continuous scans for accessibility issues, including alt text violations.

How Monsido Solves Alt Text Compliance at Scale

Monsido is a web governance platform designed to ensure digital compliance, SEO health, and performance optimization. One of its most valued features by SaaS teams is its automated accessibility scanning module, which can review entire websites—or web applications—for compliance with accessibility standards like WCAG 2.1, ADA, Section 508, and more.

Here’s how Monsido facilitates alt text fixes efficiently:

1. Automated Detection of Missing or Inadequate Alt Text

Monsido scans each page and identifies images that lack alt text or include non-descriptive phrases like “image.jpg” or “graphic.” Using AI and contextual analysis, it distinguishes between decorative and informative images, reducing false positives that would otherwise waste developer time.

2. Centralized Issue Dashboard

All detected issues are displayed in a centralized dashboard with clear categorization—missing alt text, duplicate alt text, or text that does not describe image function clearly. Teams can export these findings, assign them to developers, or integrate them into issue tracking systems like Jira for remediation.

3. Best Practice Recommendations

Besides identifying what’s wrong, Monsido provides guidance on how to write better alt text. This includes examples of descriptive phrases and insight into how screen readers interpret them. These educational components are especially helpful for non-technical team members or designers unfamiliar with accessibility standards.

4. Continuous Monitoring and Alerts

Once issues are resolved, Monsido continues to scan the website periodically. If new updates introduce alt text issues, the system alerts the relevant teams immediately. This ensures that compliance isn’t just a one-time audit but a continuous commitment.

Case Study: A Mid-Sized SaaS Vendor Learns the Value of Automation

A mid-sized SaaS company offering project management tools faced increasing pressure to comply with accessibility standards after a client based in the public sector raised concerns. Their platform hosted over 6,000 unique images—most embedded in dashboards and reports. Manual reviews had failed to catch many of the missing alt tags, and their reputation among enterprise customers was at stake.

After onboarding with Monsido, the company ran its first scan and uncovered over 1,200 images without proper alt text. Within three weeks, they had addressed 90% of the flagged items using Monsido’s suggestions. The system’s prioritization feature helped them fix the most impactful issues first, such as non-labeled navigation icons and key diagrams used in client reporting tools.

This proactive approach significantly strengthened their pitches to accessibility-conscious organizations, boosted user satisfaction scores by over 35%, and helped avoid potential litigation.

Measured Benefits: Beyond Legal Compliance

Automating alt text checks provided SaaS teams with more than peace of mind. Here’s what they gained:

  • Time savings: Developers and QA teams reported a 70% reduction in time spent on manual content audits.
  • Improved accessibility scores: Independent user testing showed dramatic improvements in screen reader usability across web pages.
  • Inclusive branding: The company could now publicly commit to accessibility as a value, empowering marketing to target new sectors like education and government.
  • Enhanced SEO performance: Proper image labeling led to better indexing of pages by search engines, increasing organic traffic.

Integrating Alt Text Checks Into Continuous Development

By embedding Monsido into their development workflow, SaaS teams can treat accessibility as a fundamental part of product design—not an afterthought. Best practices include:

  • Running Monsido scans post-deployment and during staging.
  • Adding accessibility checklists to pull request templates.
  • Training all departments—not just developers—on what makes good alt text.
  • Designating accessibility liaisons in QA and content teams.

The more integrated the platform becomes, the more seamless accessibility enforcement is. In time, alt text compliance becomes second nature to both content creators and developers, alike.

Final Thoughts: Automation Enables Responsibility at Scale

Digital inclusivity isn’t just a trend—it is a fundamental expectation for companies serving customers online. For SaaS providers managing complex, image-heavy products, tools like Monsido make meeting that expectation possible without overburdening teams.

By automating the discovery and resolution of alt text issues, organizations can boost their accessibility scores, mitigate legal risks, and reach a broader audience. For SaaS teams focused on continuous improvement, platforms like Monsido offer the leverage needed to make accessibility a sustainable, team-wide responsibility.