LOS ANGELES - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and 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). This initiative is part of ICANN's Regional Universal Acceptance Training Program, according to the official website of ICANN. 

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 country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), new and long generic top-level domains (gTLDs), and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).

The UA training series is a joint effort between LACRALO, ICANN, and the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG), designed to increase UA awareness across the LAC region and engage with technical stakeholders directly. The sessions will provide software developers, programmers, email system administrators, and IT leaders in the region with the tools to make their own systems and applications UA-ready. Interpretation will be made available in Spanish and Portuguese.

LACRALO is one of the five Regional At-Large Organizations (RALO) that make up the At-Large community. It serves as the main forum and coordination point for public input to ICANN from the At-Large community in Latin America and the Caribbean and provides news and key resources to individuals and end-user groups.

"LACRALO is proud to be part of the global movement for Universal Acceptance, working alongside ICANN and the UASG," said Sylvia Herlein Leite, LACRALO IDN-UA Working Group Chair.

"LACRALO's commitment to increasing Universal Acceptance awareness across the LAC region is another exciting step in making UA a reality," said Sarmad Hussain, ICANN Sr. Director of IDN and UA Programs. "Partnerships with key organizations like LACRALO are essential in our efforts to promote the Universal Acceptance of domain names and email addresses, and we look forward to engaging with the local community."