Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
DELHI — The development of “smart” cities was one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first initiatives upon taking office in 2014. Launched the next year, the stated focus of the Indian government’s Smart Cities Mission is “on sustainable and inclusive development, and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a lighthouse…
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India’s crusade for digitisation and digital inclusion has failed millions of Indians with disabilities. Will the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act change that? There is a need to ensure equality in the digital realm. Credit: Reuters One of the strongest mandates of the newly enacted Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 is on the issue of accessibility. The public…
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Panaji: Identifying several gaps in the existing infrastructure for disabled people of the state, authorities and stakeholders asserted that if the state capital was to attain the smart city tag, inclusive planning with a focus on the differently abled was required…. READ FULL ARTICLE: Stakeholders meet to discuss accessibility in Panaji‘Smart Panaji has to be inclusive’ | Goa News –…
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To create best-of-class livable and productive environment for its citizens and visitors, a smart city will have to evolve into an ‘intelligent city’. Estimates of the smart cities market vary widely. The one constant is a universal expectation of substantial growth. New cities will be built and existing ones will be retrofitted to create economic development and improve the lives…
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Persons with disabilities have often been neglected and excluded from the various plans, schemes and campaigns of the Government. A case in point is the SMART Cities Mission that has hardly any mention of accessibility for persons with disabilities. More importantly, with technology being the cornerstone of the SMART Cities initiative, the already existing digital divide will only grow further if it…
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The concept of Smart Cities is a construct in which to frame local government transformation. Cities need to transform in order to develop sustainably, improve resilience, meet citizens’ rising expectations, and attract investment, new businesses, and talent. This is a complex undertaking, especially when coupled with constrained financial resources, fast-growing populations, and aging (or limited) infrastructure. As a result, Smart…
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Smart cities embrace ideas that have been proven elsewhere and customise them to meet genuine local needs. In turn, these efforts serve as exemplars, showing the way for others to follow.’ We love this quote taken from India Smart Cities Challenge because we believe that one important trait of smart cities is that they learn from evidence and from what…
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The European Commission is currently developing a range of website accessibility guidelines specific to mobile applications. In April 2017, it advised the European Standards Organizations (ESOs) through Mandate 554 to develop digital accessibility standards for both public sector websites and mobile applications. These new standards build on the EU’s 2016 Web and Mobile Accessibility Directive, which directed all EU member…
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Uber India announced the launch of two new products – uberACCESS and uberASSIST supported by Mphasis, a leading cloud and cognitive services provider…. Read Full Story | Source: Uber India launches wheelchair-accessible vehicles- uberACCESS and uberASSIST
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Atlanta: On Tuesday the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ict) and World Enabled announced that their Smart Cities for All (SC4A) global initiative will develop a new tool to assess and benchmark digital inclusion and ICT accessibility in smart cities. The Smart Cities for All Digital Inclusion Maturity Model will become the first maturity model targeted specifically at digital accessibility…
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Join the United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA/DSPD) in celebrating World Cities Day 2017 with a panel discussion on “Enabling future cities to be smart. Strategies to prevent urban poverty and promote social inclusion and wellbeing.” TOPIC By 2030 more than 60% of the world’s population is projected to…
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Smart cities create a symbiosis between information, the Internet of Things and technologies to make better decisions and provide desired services. These cities map community preferences to improve services and infrastructure including public transport, libraries and waste services. They use sensors, Bluetooth and iPhones to track conditions and activities and send awareness messages ahead of emerging problems and disasters. Smart…
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Sidewalk Labs responded to an open call for a proposal for the redevelopment of Quayside, brownfield land around Toronto’s old port. This call was issued by Waterfront Toronto – a public controlled urban development agency that aspires “to explore new ideas, new innovations, new partnerships that if successful could apply to the rest of Toronto, other cities in Canada and…
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We highlight the innovative efforts of several of the leading international smart cities, drawing advice from their efforts. Source: 7 smart city strategies from pioneering cities across the world
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New York City’s first Neighborhood Innovation Lab is coordinating new smart city efforts, organizers announced Friday. The city announced that the lab — based in the neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn, since March — will start a tech education program to teach digital skills to youths, while also installing smart trash cans for efficient pickups and solar powered smart benches to charge devices, detect foot traffic and…
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The United Nations (UN) has launched a global campaign focusing on the transition to smart, sustainable cities. It advocates that public policy promotes the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a catalyst for such change. The initiative, the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC), is being led by the International Telecommunication Union and the Economic Commission for Europe…
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A new whitepaper ranking the top factors necessary for designing and implementing smart city strategies has been published by technology-driven design firm, IBI Group. Top 10 Smart City Success Factors, released ahead of the 2017 ITS World Congress hosted in Montreal, draws on the firm’s experience designing smart cities and delivering intelligent transportation systems internationally. It aims to shed light…
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Cities, the American-Canadian author Jane Jacobs once observed, are engines for national prosperity and economic growth. But in their current form, modern cities are also catalysts of inequality and environmental degradation. Today, the share of city dwellers in poverty is growing; 33 per cent live in slums; and 75 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions originate in metropolitan areas.…
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This month, the New Urban Agenda (NUA) celebrates its first anniversary. What has happened since its adoption at Habitat III in Quito? We asked Billy Cobbett (Cities Alliance), Mei Yi (Mayor of Jingdezhen, China), Eugénie L. Birch (Professor at the University of Pennsylvania), Yang Jun (Mayor of Suzhouto), María Alejandra Vicuña Muñoz (Minister of Urban Development and Housing of Ecuador)…
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Last Sunday October 8, 2017, as part of the pre-events organized on the occasion of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-17), the Telecommunication development Bureau of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) brought together a group of diverse stakeholders from all over the world to share their views, challenges and success stories related to ICT accessibility. The event, which took place…
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