The Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) has published the shortlisted events for the second annual Universal Acceptance (UA) Day, which will be held from March through the end of May and will feature 56 events spanning more than 52 countries around the world. In addition, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced that UA Day 2024 will feature a keystone global event in Belgrade, Serbia on 28 March. The keystone event will be held in partnership with Serbian National Internet Domain Registry Foundation (RNIDS) and the UASG.
The UASG invites the entire global UA community to take part in these events and help achieve a more multilingual and digitally inclusive global Internet. Organized by ICANN and the UASG and with support from interested global partners and organizations, UA Day aims to engage and mobilize technical and language communities, tech companies, governments, and DNS industry stakeholders to better understand the benefits of UA and how they can make their systems UA-ready.
A foundational requirement for today’s global Internet, UA is a technical compliance best practice that ensures that all valid domain names and email addresses, regardless of script, language, or character length, can be equally used by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems. The Domain Name System (DNS) has expanded dramatically in recent years, with the addition of new and longer top-level domain names (TLDs), as well as those in different scripts, known as Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). Achieving UA ensures everyone has the ability to experience the full social and economic power of the Internet using their chosen domain name and email address that best aligns with their interests, business, culture, language, and script.
The inaugural UA Day in 2023 marked the first time that local and regional stakeholders were mobilized on a global scale to champion UA. UA Day 2023 attracted more than 9,400 participants from over 40 countries/territories taking part in more than 50 global events. UA Day 2024 aims to continue the momentum by engaging the community through a mix of virtual, in-person, and hybrid informational and technical training sessions. By working together to build global awareness of the benefits of UA and encourage UA adoption, the UA community is helping support all current users as well as making the Internet more accessible and inclusive for billions of users who are or plan to come online.
To learn more about UA Day 2024, including how to get involved, visit https://UniversalAcceptance.day and follow the hashtag #Internet4All on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
