Universal Access
Universal access refers to the concept that top-level domain names are accessible globally through any internet browser, server, email client, and computer program. [1]
When original domain names were implemented in the Domain Name System of the Internet, such as .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .org, .net, and .arpa, non-Latin alphabet language communities were limited to easily access the Internet. Domain names at this time were exclusively expressed in languages based on US- ASCII specific script. The demand for universal access became imminent amidst the creating of IDNs.[2]
Timeline to Achieving Universal Access
In October 2009, the Internationalized Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board approved for IDN country-code top-level domain names (ccTLDs). [3]
In June 2011, ICANN announced their new gTLD Program, allowing new gTLDs to be added to the root zone. [4]
In August 2014, Google announced their implementation of IDN email addresses. Languages based on non-Latin characters and symbols (such as Chinese, Cyrillic and Arabic) are able to input their own written language into an email address on Gmail. [5]