Spotting the Silent Images

As State of Illinois employees we are aware that the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) finalized a landmark update to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II regulations. This new ruling officially codifies technical standards for state and local government entities, requiring all web content and mobile apps to be accessible by April 24, 2026.

To help our users meet these new federal mandates, we have created a new AEM report designed to identify and remediate one of the most common accessibility barriers: missing alternative text.

Our new "Images Without Alt-Text" report is designed to help streamline the remediation process for this issue, ensuring your digital assets are inclusive and legally compliant.

The primary goal of this report is to empower authors to quickly identify and fix accessibility gaps. Rather than manually auditing thousands of files, users can supply a specific content path, and the report will filter through all assets to return only images missing alternative text.

• Targeted Search: Condenses your asset library based on a user-supplied path to find specific problem areas.

• Actionable Data: The results display the Title of the image and its precise Asset Location.

• Direct Remediation: Each entry includes an "Open Asset Properties" button (represented by a gear icon), allowing users to immediately add the missing Title and Alt Text without leaving the reporting workflow.

• Optimized Performance: To ensure a smooth user experience, results are displayed in a paginated view, showing 50 items at a time.

By centralizing these missing attributes into a single, actionable view, we are making it easier for your team to meet the 2026 deadline and provide a better experience for all users.

Users may access the Images Without Alt-Text report in AEM by going to:

• Tools > ACS AEM Commons > Reports and selecting the "Images Without Alt-Text" report from the list of items, or,
• Using the direct link to the Images Without Alt-Text report in AEM.

Once on the report page, users simply need to enter a valid asset path in to the Path field and click on the Execute Report button to generate results. Generated results will display in a table with the following details available:

• Title: The Title of the image.
• Asset Location: The location in the DAM where the asset is stored.
• Open Asset Properties (Gear icon): Directly opens the asset's properties page for adding missing Titles and Alt-Text.

Users may also download a copy of the report by using the Download Report button which will download a Comma-separated value (CSV) file for use in spreadsheet applications.

Under the updated ADA Title II rule, public entities must ensure their digital content conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards. A cornerstone of this compliance is providing text alternatives for non-text content, ensuring that individuals using screen readers can fully understand the information conveyed by images.

By utilizing the new Images Without Alt-Text report, it eliminates the manual effort of auditing your digital asset management (DAM) system by focusing specifically on compliance gaps. Your team can proactively address accessibility issues well ahead of the 2026 deadline, ensuring your digital presence remains inclusive, transparent, and legally compliant.