[bspammer]

I've never understood why these shortenings are so common. Is it just to avoid the mental load of having to remember how to spell long words? Isn't the mental load of having to remember which number goes with which word worse?

[pineconewarrior]

It's like a name drop. Saying "a11y" instead of "accessibility" let's other people know what you're familiar with the industry jargon.

[somehnacct3757]

Same reason people use contractions. It's faster and conveys equivalent meaning.

A11y is probably the easiest one to remember because it looks like ally. Which is what you're being by worrying about accessibility when you yourself don't rely on the standards.

[BeFlatXIII]

You only have to remember two digits instead of the correct order of 10–18 letters. It’s probably also a lazy typist thing: four characters instead of 20.