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Resources

Regional Universal Acceptance Training Programs

Program Overview

Regional Universal Acceptance Training Programs are collaborative efforts between the ICANN org, community, and regional top-level domain (TLD) organizations to raise awareness of Universal Acceptance (UA) challenges. These programs also highlight UA remediation efforts and allow for engagement with key industry stakeholders.

Each regional program provides a series of trainings on the technical aspects of UA and serves as a forum to discuss how to effectively address UA issues specific to the region. The online sessions, delivered by leading industry experts, will address various UA and IDN-related topics each targeted at relevant regional audiences including policymakers, technical administrators, ccTLD managers, registrars and their resellers, and local regulators and businesses.

Universal Acceptance

Universal Acceptance is key to achieving a digitally inclusive Internet by ensuring that all domain names and email addresses – regardless of script, language or character length – are accepted equally by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems. This includes supporting all new and long generic top-level domains (gTLDs), and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) including both the IDN country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and gTLDs.

North America Universal Acceptance Training Program

ICANN, the North American Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO), and the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) have partnered together to host a UA training series for the North America region. The four sessions were held throughout the months of January and February 2022 and provided participants with training in the technical aspects of UA and Email Address Internationalization (EAI).

NARALO UA Training Program Schedule

Date Session Audience Description Recording
20 January 2022
12:00 PM EST
17:00 PM UTC
Introduction to UA General An introduction to the fundamentals of UA and EAI.

Session recording

Slides

27 January 2022
12:00 PM EST
17:00 PM UTC
EAI Configuration Technical (email and system administrators) A detailed training on how to configure email systems to support EAI.

Session recording

Slides

3 February 2022
12:00 PM EST
17:00 PM UTC
UA for Java Software and Application Developers Technical (software and application developers)

A detailed training on how to design and develop applications and systems to support UA.

Session recording

Slides

10 February 2022
12:00 PM EST
17:00 PM UTC
Outreach and Engagement: The Life of a UA Ambassador General

A session to discuss how participants can stay involved in UA efforts across the NA region.

Session recording

Slides

Africa Universal Acceptance Training Program

ICANN, the Africa Top Level Domain Association (AFTLD), and the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) have partnered together to host a UA training series for the Africa region. The three sessions were held from December 2021to February 2022 to introduce UA challenges and conduct technical training to address them. The training series also include a session for country code top-level domain (ccTLD) managers to discuss how they can support UA. See here for more information.

Africa UA Training Program Schedule

Date Session Audience Description Recording
Tuesday, 14 December 2021
12:30-14:00 UTC
Email Address Internationalization (EAI) Configuration Technical (systems) A detailed training on how to configure email systems to support Email Address Internationalization (EAI).

Recording

Slides

Tuesday, 18 January 2022
12:30-14:00 UTC
Programming (in Java) to Support Universal Acceptance Technical (programmers) A detailed training on how to design and develop applications and systems to support UA.

Recording

Slides

Tuesday, 15 February 2022
12:30-14:00 UTC

Universal Acceptance: Its Impact and Next Steps

ccTLD managers, local regulators, tech, and business A discussion on how UA issues impact African communities, how best to address these issues, and the business opportunities presented by being UA-ready.

Recording

Slides

APAC Universal Acceptance Training Program

The APAC UA Training Program is a partnership between ICANN and the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association (APTLD). The program, started in 2021, is designed to raise awareness of UA challenges in the APAC region, help build capacity to address those challenges, and assist ccTLDs and other stakeholders in developing and implementing robust IDN and UA-related systems and policies.

The APTLD is the regional association for ccTLDs in the APAC region, which is home to over 3,200 languages written in a variety of scripts resulting in the greatest number of potential IDNs. APTLD membership currently includes 50 ccTLDs from the APAC region, and an additional 19 associate members made up of leading registries and registrars. More information on the APTLD can be found here.

APAC UA Training Program Schedule

Date Session Audience Description Recording
20 January 2021 / 1:00 UTC Configuring for Email Address Internationalization (EAI) Technical (systems) A detailed training on how to configure email systems to support EAI.

Session Recording

Session Slides

13 April 2021 / 5:00 UTC Programming (in Java) for supporting Universal Acceptance Technical (programmers) A detailed training on how to design and develop applications and systems to support UA.

Session Recording

Session Slides

27 May 2021 / 2:00 UTC Universal Acceptance: Its Impact and Next Steps ccTLD managers, local regulators, tech, and business A dialogue on how UA issues impact the APAC community, how best to address these issues, and highlight business opportunities by being UA-ready.

Session Recording

White Paper on the Role of ccTLDs in Achieving Universal Acceptance

Additional follow up webinars or face-to-face meetings (when possible) may be scheduled based on the discussions held during the above training sessions.

More Information

The APAC UA Training Program is formulated under the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICANN and APTLD.

For more information on the program, please contact sec@aptld.org or uaprogram@icann.org.

LAC Universal Acceptance Training Program

ICANN and the Latin American and Caribbean Islands Regional At-Large Organization (LACRALO) have partnered together to host a Universal Acceptance (UA) training series for the LAC community. The four sessions will be held throughout the month of May and provide participants with training in the technical aspects of UA and Email Address Internationalization (EAI).

LACRALO UA Training Program Schedule

Date Session Audience Description Recording
4 May 2021 Introduction to UA General An introduction to the fundamentals of UA and EAI.

Recording

Slides EN | ES

11 May 2021 / 22:00 UTC EAI Configuration Technical (email and system administrators) A detailed training on how to configure email systems to support EAI.

Recording

Slides EN | ES

18 May 2021 / 22:00 UTC UA for Java Developers Technical (software developers) A detailed training on how to design and develop applications and systems to support UA.

Recording

Slides EN | ES

25 May 2021 / 22:00 UTC How to Engage in UA Activities General A session to discuss how participants can stay involved in UA efforts across the LAC region.

Recording

Slides ES

For more information, click here.

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."