Technical terms and acronyms

Guidelines for using technical language

Technical terms and acronyms often confuse readers. Avoid them whenever possible.

It’s fine to use technical terms when they’re appropriate for the audience or the situation, but you need to explain what they mean on the first reference. You can also include a short, plain-language summary or define your terms up front.

If an acronym is necessary for future reference, spell the full word and follow with the acronym in parentheses on the first reference. For example, Office of the Vice President for IT (OVPIT).

Accessibility notes

While the <abbr> tag can serve as an enhancement to make acronyms and abbreviations more clear to some users, inconsistent screen reader support means that the expanded abbreviations will not be available to all users, so it’s important to make the same information available within the text of the page.