ICANN seeks public input on draft guidelines to advance Universal Acceptance

ICANN has launched a public comment proceeding on draft guidelines prepared by its Universal Acceptance (UA) Expert Working Group (EWG). The group was established in August 2025 to develop recommendations for advancing Universal Acceptance within ICANN’s work and across the wider internet community.

Universal Acceptance is a technical principle that ensures all valid domain names and email addresses, including those using different scripts, languages or longer character strings, function correctly across internet-enabled applications, devices and systems. It is considered important for digital inclusion and is linked to preparations for the 2026 round of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs).

The draft guidelines propose strategic and practical measures to encourage UA adoption among a broad range of stakeholders. These include technology companies, open-source communities, standards bodies, software developers, system administrators, domain name industry actors, hosting and internet service providers, public sector institutions, intergovernmental organisations and academic institutions. The report also suggests developing a framework to measure progress in awareness, policy support, implementation and capacity development related to UA.

ICANN is inviting feedback on potential gaps in the guidelines, implementation challenges and how the proposed measures should be prioritised. After reviewing community input, the UA EWG plans to update and publish the final guidelines. ICANN will then assess and prioritise the recommendations as part of its operational planning.

Public Comment proceedings are a formal mechanism within ICANN’s multistakeholder model that allow community members to provide documented input on policy and operational proposals.