Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
I recently had the pleasure of accompanying the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) on its annual LINK trip in my capacity as the ARC’s citizen board member for the City of Atlanta. The purpose of the trip is for more than 100 government, business and non-profit sector leaders to visit other cities to learn from their successes and failures in addressing…
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About The Washington Group The Washington Group is a United Nations Statistics Commission City Group formed of representatives of national statistical offices working on developing methods to better improve statistics on persons with disabilities globally, with input from various international agencies and experts. These include UN agencies, bilateral aid agencies, NGOs, Disabled People Organizations, and researchers. The United National Statistical Commission authorized…
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The people in our cities have incredibly varied lifestyles. They vary in the hours they work, the transport they use and in their accessibility needs – so it is essential that their cities work for them. Helping people live better and less complicated lives is at the heart of engineering. The Institution of Civil Engineers, alongside the City Leadership Lab,…
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At this week’s AI for Good Global Summit,artificial intelligence (AI) experts, ethicists, academics, technologists, United Nations representatives, and youth gathered to discuss how AI can help support educational initiatives and improve the lives of young people worldwide. They noted that while AI has the power to a resolve some of humanity’s grandest challenges, these technologies also risk leaving the young,…
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Smart Cities Big Data and the Meaninglessness of Mere Information: We attempt to take down the idea that more data is the solution to our problems. Without wisdom, and without an ethical frame, numbers mean nothing. By Chris Krycho and Stephen Carradini. Discovered by Player FM and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and…
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The number of smart speakers bought in 2018 alone has doubled in the last four months with the likes of Alexa and Google Home answering queries in the home. Meanwhile driverless cars are being developed by the likes of Amazon and Tesla to deliver packages cutting human interaction. The idea sparked debate at The Drum’s Smart Cities Off Stone briefing…
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The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to have an unprecedented impact on our daily lives. In particular, “smart environments” will change how we interact with our surrounding and with each other, including at home, in public spaces, and at the work place. This provides an opportunity to ensure equal access for people with disabilities. For example, operating doors, windows,…
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Abstract The present work discusses the possibilities offered by the evolution of Information and Communication Technologies with the aim of designing a system to dynamically obtain knowledge of accessibility issues in urban environments. This system is facilitated by technology to analyse the urban user experience and movement accessibility, which enabling accurate identification of urban barriers and monitoring its effectiveness over…
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The benefits of Smart Nation should extend to all segments of society, especially those with disabilities. We take a look at 5 of these devices. Thank you to SPD for showing us these great assistive tech designs. Source: Government Technology Agency of Singapore Published on May 10, 2018
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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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