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Month: December 2017

Why is Singapore smarter? Hong Kong left trailing after rival ranked 2nd in global smart cities index

Why is Singapore smarter? Hong Kong left trailing after rival ranked 2nd in global smart cities index, Business Insider – Business Insider Singapore

Despite HK$1 billion in government cash to improve smart technology, Hong Kong scores lower than several other Asian cities including Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka and Taipei

Hong Kong has been ranked 68th in a global smart city index – way behind its main rival Singapore, which came in second.

Despite recent efforts by the government to make the city smarter, Hong Kong scored poorly in several factors including transport and mobility, sustainability, innovative economy, digitisation, and experts’ perception….

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Centre for Universal Design Australia @UDAustralia

Screenshot-2017-12-8 December 2017 – Centre for Universal Design Australia

Front cover of the guide. It is blue with white text. It has outlines of pedestrians trees, buildings and transportThe Global Street Design Guide aims to set a global baseline for designing streets and public spaces as our world becomes increasingly urbanised. The Guide broadens the scope of how to measure the success of urban streets. It includes access, safety and mobility for all users, environmental quality, economic benefit, public health and overall quality of life. It is free to download from the Global Designing Cities Initiative. Each section can be downloaded separately and this is where technical details can be found.

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This Braille Smartwatch is Bringing Smart City Innovation into Focus!

This Braille smartwatch is bringing the world closer to the blind : Newz Hook – Changing Attitudes towards Disability

South Korea-based startup specialises in innovative solutions for the blind.
It has created products that are low cost, small and easy to carry.

The Dot Smartwatch, which claims to be the world’s first Braille smartwatch,
lets the blind receive real time information from their phone, such as
notifications, text messages, and Facebook messages in braille.

The smartwatch vibrates when there is a notification on the phone and the
user cans elect and read the messages in Braille. This way the blind are
connected, like everyone else….

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New tech accessibility requirements are coming to government in 2018

Screenshot-2017-12-8 New tech accessibility requirements are coming to government in 2018

With 2018 approaching, federal agencies are preparing for a major update to the government’s digital accessibility requirements — standards that are designed to modernize and widen access for disabled users.

The specifications, that take effect in January, establish new guidelines to help seeing- and hearing-impaired residents access information on government websites, apps and from other digital media. The rules target federal agencies, but are intended to be a reference point for states and cities.

The changes come through an update to Section 508, a 2001 amendment of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The U.S. Access Board, an independent federal agency that promotes equality for people with disabilities, announced in an overview of the update that one of the most significant revisions is a wider application of the rules…..

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Empowering the Transformation to a More Inclusive and Accessible World

Empowering the Transformation to a More Inclusive and Accessible World

United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities (UN IDPD) serves as an important reminder that globally there are over a billion people with a disability. This year’s theme, “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient society for all” is especially relevant to our accessibility efforts here at Microsoft. This is a fact reinforced by the World Health Organization in which they shared that only 1 in 10 have access to the assistive technology they need: technology that can empower functioning, well-being and independence. This is a statistic that needs to change.

Disability is something that can affect any of us at any time, and technology has the power to change lives and help transform society on multiple levels. There have been many advances in assistive technology, especially in the last couple of years, and it’s both exciting and humbling to see the progress. There’s a lot more to do (and trust me, we’re on that!) but in the meantime, let’s talk about some of the steps we’re making at Microsoft to make accessibility easier to find, use, and become a master at….

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Building Smart City Austin for Human Diversity and Social inclusion

Screenshot-2017-12-8 Austin’s CodeNEXT – Austin Startups

Urbanization is one of the most important global trends of the 21st century. It has the potential to contribute to the “re-design” of our world supporting the creation of sustainable, accessible, and inclusive cities for all. About 6.25 billion people, 15% of them with disabilities, are predicted to be living in urban centers by 2050.

We are at a historic moment in inclusive social and economic development, fueled by technological advances. The City of Austin, TX is searching for ways to create a vibrant, accessible, and disability inclusive culture that attracts jobs, fosters economic development, and is an attractive place for all people to live, work, and play.

Like many municipalities across the country, Austin discovered that it’s current land development codes and ordinances often get in the way of achieving these goals — hence the creation of CodeNEXT. Austin is banking on its new Land Development Codes, AKA “CodeNEXT” to help remove system barriers and other problems that have stalled Austin’s progress in becoming the most livable, accessible and inclusive city in the nation…..

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Smart Cities Built for Everyone : Innovations in Accessible & Inclusive Urban Design

Screenshot-2017-12-8 Smart Cities Built for Everyone – Austin Startups

These days, our cities are smarter than ever — still works in progress. With estimates suggesting that 15% of the world’s population live with disabilities (upwards of one billion people), redesigning our urban environments to be as welcoming as possible has never been more important.

That’s why I’m celebrating the innovations that are making Smart Cities more accessible. From clever apps and crowdsourced resources to revamped public transit and cultural programming, our urban spaces are best when they can be shared by all.

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Disability – An Upside for Everyone in Unifying Smart City Design

Screenshot-2017-12-8 Disability An Upside for Everyone in Unifying Smart City Design

Disabilities have a lot in common with the many of the technology markets I have analyzed for the last 20 years: each was developed and considered in isolation, solutions were specific to each area, and the cost was excessive. Nothing united the disability segments just like nothing united the different streams of technology. Until now….

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Adding Accessibility and Inclusion into Austin’s #SmartCities Strategic Roadmap

eight-diverse-children-playing-cartoon

Like many other fast-growing urban centers, my hometown of Austin, TX has reached a historic tipping point triggered by Austin’s rapid urbanization. Austin City Leadership recognizes it must engage in vastly new approaches to adjust and calibrate to social and economic challenges amplified by the lightning speed of technical and industrial advances. To address these challenges, Austin is taking a big leap into the Smart City pond….

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Austin is Fast Becoming The Most Livable, Accessible & Inclusive “Smart City” In the U.S.

Screenshot-2017-12-8 Austin is Fast Becoming The Most Livable, Accessible Inclusive City In the U S

Austin is Fast Becoming The Most Livable, Accessible & Inclusive Smart City In the U.S.
Building cities and societies for human diversity and social inclusion is becoming a global mandate and Austin is about to do it all.

Austin Skyline and Lady Bird Lake from the Hyatt Panorama View

Date Feb. 8, 2017
Author: Darren Bates

AUSTIN, TX — We are at a historic moment in inclusive social and economic development, fueled by technological advances. Like so many municipalities across our nation, the City of Austin seeks to improve livability, workability, and sustainability.

However, Austin has work to do. For far too long Austin has failed to consider the unique ways physical and social barriers limit the participation of persons with disabilities and other historically underserved populations from accessing and enjoying city benefits, services, and products.

As well, the lack of participation of persons with disabilities, people of color and other equity groups in Austin’s urban affairs is one of the biggest challenges facing our central Texas city….

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How should we design disability-inclusive cities?

How should we design disability-inclusive cities? | Sustainable Cities

How should we design disability-inclusive cities?
Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez’s picture
Submitted by Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez On Mon, 12/04/2017
co-authors: Shazia Siddiqi

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Urbanization has been one of the most significant driving forces of recent global development, with more than half the world’s population now living in cities. And this proportion will continue to rise. Add to this, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 11 that calls for “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” cities.

In this edition of the Sustainable Communities Blog, Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez (@Ede_WBG), Senior Director of the World Bank’s Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice, sat down with Dr. Shazia Siddiqi, Executive Director of Deaf Abused Women’s Network (DAWN), for a conversation on the disability dimension of inclusion and how we should conceive and design cities that are truly inclusive of all, including persons with disabilities.

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@ImTiffanyYu Talks Inequality and Disability | #InequalityIs @Diversability

Screenshot-2017-12-5 #InequalityIs Tiffany Yu on inequality and disability

Tiffany Yu, founder of Diversability, talks about how exclusion is more disabling to a person than an actual disability and why employers should hire people with disabilities because of their strengths, not to meet a quota.

The #InequalityIs campaign by the Ford Foundation is a yearlong conversation about inequality in all its forms.

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Ford Foundation Setting-the-Pace for Smart City Inclusion

Screenshot-2017-12-5 Why disability rights are central to social justice work—and what we’re doing about it

Last fall, Darren Walker wrote an essay urging all of us to acknowledge our personal biases and to understand how those biases can fuel injustice and inequality. Darren’s call grew out of his own awakening: the realization, brought to light by friends and activists, that for all the foundation’s attention to challenging inequality, we hadn’t accounted for the huge community of people living with disabilities. It was a humbling moment, he wrote.

As the past year has shown, it has also proved to be a consequential one. It quickly became clear that our focus on inequality demands that we think seriously about disability issues. It became equally clear that across all our programs, the specific outcomes and goals we’re working to achieve simply cannot be accomplished without addressing the needs, concerns, and priorities of people with disabilities. And so, guided by the disability movement’s mantra, “Nothing about us without us,” we’ve been working to confront ableism and expand participation and inclusion on both the institutional and the individual levels. It turned out we had a lot to learn.

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REV Group introduces first hybrid wheelchair #accessible vehicle at LA Auto Show

REV Group introduces first hybrid wheelchair-accessible vehicle at LA Auto Show – Accessibility – Metro Magazine

REV Group introduced the world’s first production plug-in gas/electric hybrid wheelchair accessible vehicle at the LA Auto Show. The base vehicle is the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica, and the introduction was part of the FCA exhibit highlighting the breadth of its automotive technologies. The introduction also marked the first public show for REV Group’s latest specialty vehicle brand, Revability.

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World Disability Day is today – Why it Matters.

World Disability Day is today – Why it Matters : Newz Hook – Changing Attitudes towards Disability

World Disability Day is today – Why it Matters We all know the statistics. Over a billion people, that’s nearly 15% of the world’s population, are disabled. About 80% of them live in the developing world. In India, the disabled population is officially estimated to be nearly 21 million, although various policy papers place the figure at almost double of…

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ITU’s #accessible publications are now more readily available

ITU’s #accessible publications are now more readily available

ITU’s suite of accessible publications for people with disabilities is now more readily than ever — available on a dedicated online portal. With over 60 titles available, and many translated into different languages, this is one of many ways ITU is working to advance digital inclusion.

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Bluetooth iBeacons Making Smart Cities More Accessible

Using Bluetooth iBeacons for making cities more accessible – Safe & Smart City

Bluetooth Beacons are small devices that send Bluetooth signals to nearby mobile devices. These can trigger actions on these mobile devices, for example sending a marketing message at the right time and place. They are especially helpful for helping the visually impaired navigate indoors where GPS can’t reach phones. A number of projects use beacons in this capacity in a variety of sectors.

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Disability is not a bad thing! – My keynote speech for International Day of People with Disability

carly findlay at podium for keynote

Today is International Day of People with Disability. I’ve been doing a lot of work in my hometown for the Day these past few days. I was interviewed by The Border Mail – the article is here. It made front page of the paper paper!

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What We Learned From Smart Cities NYC ’17

smart cities nyc 17

Smart Cities need to be for everyone

Bridging the digital divide was another major theme of the show, and premiere sponsor Microsoft led the conversation.

“This is not about cool technology,” Toni Townes-Whitley, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector and Industry, said. “This is about regulatory work and increasing inclusiveness across the board.”

During her keynote, Townes-Whitley unveiled the company’s Smart Cities for All initiative, which seeks to empower disabled persons by making today’s digital environments more accessible. We’ll be covering this initiative and Microsoft’s other big reveals later this week.

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