Does ‘12/11/10’ refer to November 12, 2010, or December 11, 2010? Users should never have to guess the meaning of a date due to regional formatting differences.

Objectives

• Prevent confusion regarding date meanings.
• Improve the clarity and reusability of the content.

Implementation

• Ensure the month is written in full (e.g., ‘December’) or abbreviated (e.g., ‘Dec.’), rather than as a number.
• Provide the full four-digit year. Ensure this requirement is integrated into automated content management systems.

Control

• Identify pages containing dates.
• Check that the month is written in words (full or abbreviated) rather than as a number.
• Verify that the year is displayed using four digits instead of two.