diff --git a/application/migrations/20240917160000_addFileAltText.php b/application/migrations/20240917160000_addFileAltText.php
index e6f49ef20..22d776807 100644
--- a/application/migrations/20240917160000_addFileAltText.php
+++ b/application/migrations/20240917160000_addFileAltText.php
@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ class addFileAltText extends Omeka_Db_Migration_AbstractMigration
 {
     public function up()
     {
-        $this->db->query("ALTER TABLE {$this->db->File} ADD `alt_text` mediumtext collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL");
+        $this->db->query("ALTER TABLE {$this->db->File} ADD `alt_text` text collate utf8_unicode_ci");
     }
 }
diff --git a/application/schema/files.sql b/application/schema/files.sql
index c1d821d0c..f3a3c543d 100644
--- a/application/schema/files.sql
+++ b/application/schema/files.sql
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `%PREFIX%files` (
   `added` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT '2000-01-01 00:00:00',
   `stored` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
   `metadata` mediumtext collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
-  `alt_text` mediumtext collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
+  `alt_text` mediumtext collate utf8_unicode_ci,
   PRIMARY KEY  (`id`),
   KEY `item_id` (`item_id`)
 ) ENGINE=InnoDB  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci;