3.3 Expand the first occurrence of any abbreviation or acronym

Rationale

Abbreviations may be indecipherable when machine-spoken or output as Braille.
Correct mark-up of abbreviations or acronyms makes reading easier for users of screen readers, audio browsers and Braille devices.

In addition, providing expansions of acronyms and abbreviations directly in the text of content - as you would in a document created in a word processor - improves readability for users from other countries, those who have never encountered the abbreviation before and users with reading difficulties. Note: in the near future, browsers will let you choose to have abbreviations and acronyms expanded automatically but until this is generally supported, it is best to continue to specify the expansion.

Directions and Techniques

Define acronyms and abbreviations using the correct HTML

See the WAI recommended techniques for marking up abbreviations and acronyms with ABBR and ACRONYM and TITLE to indicate the expansion.

Provide the expansion, at the first occurrence, in the content

Provide expansions of acronyms and abbreviations directly in the content, as you would in a document created in a word processor.

How you could check for this:

Get a technical writer to review the document

A technical writer or a trained proof reader should be able to find and define the meaning of acronyms and abbreviations in documents. Ideally this should happen before they are published on the web.

- View WAI Checkpoint 4.2