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Self-Editing Tip # 15: Make Sure You Add ‘Alt Text’ to Your Images
It helps with both accessibility and discoverability.
What the heck is Alt Text?
Alt stands for alternative.
So Alt Text is a way for visually impaired people and others to read a description of the images you use on Medium to illustrate your posts. It’s also one more way for Google to lead folks to your stories. That’s why it’s good to have a few keywords in there if at all possible.
Most of us use an image — either a photo or a graphic under our title and subtitle. And Medium encourages us to do so, since, along with headlines and subheads, images attract readers.
Sometimes, we add additional images to make our stories pop. Or to show the reader what we mean as we tell her a story or how to do something. Images are especially important when we have step-by-step instructions on how to do something.
’s story, My Uncle’s Tragic Life is a recent example. Brandy, you can still go back in and add your Alt Text.
When we import an image, we can leave it the size it shows up in. Or we can enlarge it. If we’re using the built-in Unsplash source for images, get our choice of small, medium, and large.
