![\"Chinese](\"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Chinese-keyboard.jpg\" "\\"Chinese")
I take it for granted that most of the content I want to view on the web will be in my native language, English, and I merely have to type the website\u2019s name into my browser to navigate to the site.<\/p>\nI take it for granted that most of the content I want to view on the web will be in my native language, English, and I merely have to type the website\u2019s name into my browser to navigate to the site.<\/p>\n
For speakers of languages with non-Latin based writing systems (including Arabic<\/a>, Cyrillic<\/a> and Chinese<\/a>), this is not the case. To navigate to websites, they need to type in characters such as the ones you see here. And for those unfamiliar with Latin letters<\/a>, this proves a hindrance to accessing content. <\/p>\n Last month, however, the internet regulator Icann<\/a> (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved the use of different alphabets, ending the dominance of Latin alphabets such as English.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been hailed as a big move which can increase accessibility to the web, especially among those unfamiliar with Latin letters:<\/p>\n The impact will vary by location, with more remote countries seeing the biggest expansion. Rod Beckstrom, Icann\u2019s president, called the step \u201ca historic move toward the internationalisation of the internet … We just made the internet much more accessible to millions of people in regions such as Asia, the Middle East and Russia.\u201d (Source: FT.com<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n