5.3 Expansion of abbreviations and acronyms in a document
The New Zealand Web Standards 2.0 were released in March 2009 and replace the previous version, the New Zealand Government Web Standards 1.0 (below). See Meeting the standards for more information.
The Standard
5.3 Specify the expansion of each abbreviation or acronym in a document where it first occurs.
Guide to this Standard
Use the HTML ABBR and ACRONYM tags when using abbreviations or acronyms to define their full meaning. This standard covers the W3C WAI checkpoint 4.2 for NZ government agencies.
Rationale for this standard
The meaning of acronyms and abbreviations are not obvious on their own to all users of a web site, particularly for NZ Government agencies sites intended for public access.
Additionally, abbreviations are no more than the letters that they constitute to assistive technologies such as text and Braille readers, unless they are given more details as to what they stand for.
