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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Friends and Colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">The
<i>Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG)</i> commissioned a new study on the universal acceptance of TLDs across the top 1,000 websites as ranked by Alexa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">The methodology consisted of testing 6 different email IDs that were fully ASCII, fully IDN, or a mix of ASCII and IDN. While on the one hand “fully ASCII” email IDs provided very
high rates of acceptance, “fully IDN” email IDs scored extremely low. The mix of ASCII and IDN email IDs gave varying results.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">While the report was conducted on a global scale, stakeholders in Brazil took this project one step further and implemented it at the national level. They tested the 50 most popular
websites in Brazil according to Alexa rankings, and the results showed that only 3 websites achieved total Universal Acceptance compliance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">More on this in the blog at
<a href="https://uasg.tech/2019/10/are-the-worlds-top-websites-truly-accessible-for-global-audiences/">
https://uasg.tech/2019/10/are-the-worlds-top-websites-truly-accessible-for-global-audiences/</a> and the two accompanying reports; the Global report and the Brazil case study report.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Thank you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Fahd Batayneh<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">ICANN<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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