Issue Summary

Decorative images are not hidden from screen readers in the generated PDF.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the Confluence Cloud Homepage.
2. From the Sidebar navigation, expand Spaces and open any space.
3. Open a page that contains images.
4. Navigate to the "More actions" menu button and activate it, then select "Export" and choose "Export to PDF".
5. Navigate to the "Download PDF" link and activate it.
6. Open the downloaded file using Adobe Acrobat on Windows or Preview on macOS.
7. Navigate to a image using G (JAWS/NVDA) or Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + G (VoiceOver).
8. Observe that the decorative image is exposed to screen readers.

Screenshot

Actual Results

When exporting a Confluence page to PDF, images intended to be decorative (by leaving the Alt text field empty) are not correctly handled in the generated PDF. Although they are marked as decorative in Confluence page, this information is not preserved during export. As a result, the decorative images remain exposed to screen readers and receive focus during navigation instead of being hidden from assistive technologies.

Expected Results

Decorative images should be skipped by screen readers in the PDF.

When exporting a Confluence page, images with empty Alt text must be hidden from assistive technologies, excluded from the tag tree, and ignored during navigation.

Apply the following changes:

• Mark as Artifacts: Tag images with empty Alt text as Artifacts during PDF generation so they are ignored by screen readers.
• Preserve Alt Text Metadata: Ensure the export process respects the Alt text from Confluence, using empty Alt text to identify decorative images.

Workaround

Currently there is no known workaround for this behavior. A workaround will be added here when available

Environment

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)
macOS Tahoe 26.2
Operations - Windows11
Chrome - Version 144.0.7559.133 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Safari- Version 26.2
JAWS- Version 2023
NVDA- Version 2025.3.2
VoiceOver - Version Latest