How acronyms hurt efforts towards inclusion: a plea to rethink how we use them

I’m writing this note as a content designer and someone whose first language is English. I’m definitely in the 1% in terms of literacy, too. And yet, I often find myself excluded or feeling stupid at work because I don’t know what an acronym means.

We use acronyms because we think they help. Sometimes they do. But the main beneficiary is the person writing the acronym — not the intended or unintended audience.

This note is a plea: let’s stop using acronyms as a default in the workplace, even if they feel like convenient shorthand.

The unintended consequences of acronyms

In many cases, acronyms can confuse and alienate unfamiliar audiences, and even well-intentioned writers and speakers may overestimate an audience’s familiarity with abbreviations. Abbreviations shouldn’t be completely avoided, but using them as a default can be problematic.

1. Acronyms make life harder for new people and slow them down.
2. They can make people who don’t know them feel excluded or silly.
3. They don’t help to create an open culture where people feel they can ask questions.
4. They’re an easy, but unhelpful way to name things.
5. They increase cognitive load, which can lead to mistakes and misinterpretation.

For folks working across teams or orgs, acronyms can be especially mentally taxing and really slow us down.

Something you can start doing today

If we’re to make a change, we all have to step up. Here are some of the things we can all start doing today:

1. Before creating a new acronym, think about an alternative — how you might describe the concept in the shortest way possible.
2. When you’re writing and talking, try using few or no acronyms — save the really common ones, like ‘UX’.
3. Be mindful of acronyms popping into our daily conversation, especially if you see a new person in the room. Ask people to spell out the acronym.
4. If you must use an acronym in your documentation, make sure to spell it out the first time you mention it.
5. See if it makes a difference to be more descriptive instead.

Further reading

1. Elon Musk’s email to all Tesla staff in 2010. Highlight: “Excessive use of made up acronyms is a significant impediment to communication and keeping communication good as we grow is incredibly important.”
2. Inc.com article. Highlight: “Nothing sours a freshly onboarded employee more than making them feel like an outsider. If you introduce them to the company with opaque acronym-speak, they’re bound to be lost. How long do you suppose they’ll stick around when they can’t understand their colleagues?”
3. The Startup on Medium. Highlight: “Speed is not the best outcome of communication when comprehension is zero.”
4. Plain language guidance from the US government. Highlight: “When you’re considering whether to use an abbreviation, or how many you can get away with in a document, remember that they should make it easier for your users. If they make it harder, you’ve failed to write for your audience.”