Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
Although the quantity of people using technology in their everyday lives is constantly rising, a relatively high percentage of the world’s population remains digitally disengaged or even technologically illiterate. In the European Union alone, nearly a third of people don’t use the internet on a daily basis; only half of all Europeans aged 16 – 74 use social networks or…
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Cities around the world are looking for smart solutions to urban problems and are embracing technology to help them do so. At the same time, the gap between rich and poor in urban centres is growing – driving low income residents farther away from city centres. An upcoming conference held at the University of Toronto’s downtown campus is exploring how…
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Building Age-Friendly Smart City Communities Hear what members of our community want in an age-friendly community. Affordable housing and transportation, access to health care and social activities, respect and much more. Thank you to Tufts Health Plan Foundation Boston Neighborhood Network, Ethos and Massachusetts Senior Action Council for their help in producing this video.
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Age-friendly cities help seniors shine through their golden years Cities are great places for young people, but they’re also wonderful places to spend your entire life. In fact, more and more people are staying in cities for good, and enjoying their retirement in a vibrant atmosphere. As a result, cities are taking senior-friendliness seriously. They need to provide residents with…
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Inclusive smart cities need tools of this type to empower people who now depend on others. It is hoped that Bluetooth guiding systems such as this will be widespread in city centres in the next few years, and perhaps by 2020-2025 no blind person will need to be accompanied by a sighted person to move within their city. Empowering vision…
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Most of us think of ourselves as normal because we are part of the norm. Nicely installed in the majority, we often don’t realize that cities must be designed for all, and not only for the majority of “normal” citizens. For the small percentage of people who are born deaf, who cannot move about on their own, or who need…
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PROVO — This city’s new mayor has had a lot of firsts in the past few months. For example, on Tuesday she shot her first group selfie, snapping a shot at the Provo Recreation Center during a kickoff lunch in support of national Digital Inclusion Week. Mayor Michelle Kaufusi, elected last fall to fill the position vacated by the state’s…
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AI is already learning how to discriminate By Erica Kochi March 15, 2018 Co-founder, UNICEF Innovation What happens when robots take our jobs, or take on military roles, or drive our vehicles? When we ask these questions about the rapidly-expanding role of AI, there are others we’re often overlooking—like the subject of a WEF paper released this week: how do we…
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Implementing #ICT #accessibility standards & procurement policies, requiring documents, presentations, web content, apps & software solutions be created & maintained in a manner consistent with applicable #accessibility guidelines also contributes to a more #inclusive #SmartCity https://t.co/hnvFKcL3Gf — Smart Cities Library™ (@SmartCitiesL) May 7, 2018
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A Cloud for Global Good: A roadmap to a trusted, responsible, and inclusive cloud The opportunity Cloud computing offers significant benefits for people of all ages and abilities. It can empower people with visual, learning, age- related, mobility, hearing and speech disabilities to learn more effectively, engage and collaborate with others more easily, and express themselves more clearly. Cloud-based technologies…
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Every day the population of the United States, including Texas, is getting older. This poses important challenges to Social Security, Medicare and a host of state and local programs. In fact, the Census Bureau recently announced that it projects there will be more older people than children in the United States by 2035. We can’t afford to wait 17 years…
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Share buttons by maFounded in 2006, the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development, in partnership with the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs, and World Enabled, put together the SmartCities4All toolkit. The toolkit is one of many attempts to engage the wider urban community to use technology in a way that makes smart cities accessible for the differently abled.…
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The first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma advocates for equal opportunities for people with disabilities. President Obama named her a White House Champion of Change, and Forbes recognized her in Forbes 30 Under 30. Haben travels the world consulting and public speaking, teaching clients the benefits of fully accessible products and services. Haben is…
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Kat Holmes was most recently Microsoft’s Principal Director for Inclusive Design. In this episode, we define inclusive design, explore how to apply it to our own work and discuss the importance of designing for ‘one size, fits one.’ Source and Transcript at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h42RThsvXxs&feature=youtu.be
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Ford has unveiled a prototype smart car window that will allow blind people to “feel the view” that sighted drivers can enjoy. “From rolling hills to mountain ranges, views make any road trip memorable, but for blind passengers this is part of the experience that they miss,” the company said. The smart car window aims to change this by enabling…
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Inclusivity. It’s one of the biggest buzzwords inside corporations right now. But the person who brought the practice of inclusive design to Microsoft–Kat Holmes–isn’t so sure that companies really get the idea yet. Holmes has since founded an independent design practice focused on inclusive product developing, become a judge for our 2018 Innovation by Design Awards, and penned the upcoming book Mismatch. I…
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At a recent user experience-focused meetup group in PhillyCHI’s “Designing for Accessibility” Mikey Ilagan, an accessibility specialist at Think Company and Comcast. led a panel to discuss why accessible design matters. The panel shared insights and key factors for why accessible design matters. Checkout the full article below from Generocity to discover four key takeaways to to help you become an accessible design advocate…
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The Power of Disability Inclusion in the Technology and Entrepreneurial Sector How Technology Startups Can Leverage Disability Inclusion and Become Relevant, Competitive and Gain an Unfair Advantage Image: A cartoon of six identical individuals dressed in business suits and sitting around a table with notepads and pen. At one end of the table, an individual is cupping his hand to…
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In recent months, Uber has shone a spotlight on the importance of cultivating diversity in tech, but there’s one aspect of diversity that remains largely untouched: Ability. People with disabilities–such as deafness, blindness, or conditions including autism and Asperger’s syndrome–comprise roughly 6 percent of the U.S. labor force, according to the most recent available data from the U.S. Census Bureau.…
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One of the criticisms of the technology industry is that, by focusing on products and platforms, it has forgotten about people. Advocates for disability rights are adding that they want to see a greater commitment to disability inclusion in product development as well as global development. Last month, a group of civil society organizations published a call to action on Devex arguing…
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