By Sarmad Hussain, Senior Director, IDN and UA Programs at ICANN
Imagine ordering a pizza online, but the system only accepts “George” as a valid email mailbox name – not “Jörg,” “Георгий,” or “Γεώργιος.” When this happens to customers who want to use different scripts online, they may get frustrated and give up, resulting in lost business or a bad user experience, all due to outdated systems.
A new video from the UASG, available in six UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish), shows how scenarios like this can be avoided with Universal Acceptance (UA). As the architects and custodians of today’s Internet, developers play a critical role in making the Internet more inclusive by supporting UA, a technical compliance best practice that ensures all valid domain names and email addresses can be used by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems.
The Internet has seen dramatic expansion in recent years in regard to the overall number of top-level domains (TLDs), scripts and languages used for them, and their character length. Hundreds of new TLDs that speak to interests (e.g., .SPORT) or are in a language not using English alphabet (e.g., .世界) give people greater freedom in their choice of Internet identity. But while the Domain Name System has evolved, the rules used by software applications haven’t kept up, creating problems for organizations and frustrations for users who are unable to use their preferred domain names and email addresses online.
Those who develop, provide, or govern online websites and applications play an important role in helping people worldwide experience the full social and economic power of the Internet. As the next billion Internet users come online, most of whom will likely not speak or understand English or recognize the English alphabet, an understanding of UA principles is critical for developers who want to be at the forefront of their industry and keep pace with the new, global Internet. If you are a software developer, familiarizing yourself with UA and the benefits of becoming UA-ready is an increasingly significant and differentiating skill set. In doing so, you are supporting all current users as well as making the Internet more accessible and inclusive.
To learn more about UA, contact the UASG at info@uasg.tech and follow the hashtag #Internet4All on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X. If you are ready to move forward with adopting UA, check out these UA-ready code samples.
