A project has been started with the goal of enabling a multilingual internet environment where users from all over the world may navigate completely in local languages and scripts.
"Universal Acceptance (UA)" is a project that aims to support, process, and display domain names and other unique addresses accurately on the internet in many languages, independent of script and character length.
It will train higher education institutions in the region to configure and make their websites, applications, and email systems UA-ready while incorporating the concepts into their curricula. The initiative is being led by the Coalition for Digital Africa in partnership with the Association of African Universities (AAU).
As users will have access to crucial information from the three-year initiative, it will be crucial for academic work.
At a gathering to launch the initiative in Accra, Pierre Dandjinou, Vice-President of Global Stakeholder Engagement, said this.
Improving Accessibility
Professor Olusola Oyewole, the General Secretary of the AAU, addressed attendees at the project launch and stated that it aimed to improve internet accessibility across the continent with a focus on getting higher education institutions' email systems and other communication platforms ready for UA and email address internationalization (EAI).
It was "aligned to the association's strategic aim of increasing the institutional capacities of its partners to be able to accept and execute the necessary modifications to their email systems and digital platforms so that Africa was part of an inclusive internet," he said.
Consequently, Prof. Oyewole assured that the association was well-positioned to leverage its present membership of 420 vice chancellors and 420 information technology directors across Africa to promote the necessary adjustments to attain widely recognized email systems, websites, and other digital platforms.
breaking technological barriers
John Ntim Fordjour, a deputy minister of education, praised the stakeholders for taking the initiative to recognize the need to concentrate on enhancing higher education institutions' capacities to modernize their websites and email systems so that the information they carried could be accessed in multiple languages.
Support
Ursula Owusu Ekuful, the minister of communications and digitalization, praised the effort and said it was a significant step towards developing an equitable digital environment in Africa.
In a speech delivered by Nana Asafu-Aidoo, Executive Director of Ghana Domain Registry, he expressed the ministry's commitment to supporting the initiative and making sure that all policies and strategies aligned with the initiative's goals were implemented. This would make the internet accessible and inclusive for everyone, regardless of language or location.
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