Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
Accessibility can be viewed as the “ability to access” and benefit from some system or entity. Accessibility involves removing the barriers faced by individuals with a variety of disabilities (which can include, but is not limited to: physical, sensory, cognitive, learning, mental health) and the various barriers (including attitudinal and systemic) that impede an individual’s ability to participate in social, cultural, political, and economic life. Disabilities can be temporary or permanent.
The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers).
Accessibility is not to be confused with usability, which is the extent to which a product (such as a device, service, or environment) can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.
Accessibility is strongly related to universal design which is the process of creating products that are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations.
A key challenge faced by Smart Cities is to ensure the engagement and inclusion of all people including citizens with disabilities and those that are aging. An accessible Smart City is purposefully designed to include all people and equitably meets the needs of both people with disabilities and people who self-identify as non-disabled.
A Smart City isn’t smart if it doesn’t support the needs of all citizens.
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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 inclusive and accessible. From clever…
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Net Neutrality, Accessibility, and the Disability Community Let’s face it, social media can be a troll-infested, fetid dumpster fire polluting our timelines. There are days when I don’t want to be online. As I try to practice self-care, I invariably return to the Internet because it is my second home, my playground, my workshop. Net neutrality is important to me…
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Accessibility in the News—12/01/17. Does the Americans with Disabilities Act, enacted before the word “internet” became part of our daily vocabulary, require businesses to make their websites accessible? This year’s federal decisions say it does. This week covers a great deal in how that requirement is affecting various industries. The debate continues on whether or not “ADA compliance” is a…
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n the Government, digital services projects too often fail to meet user expectations or contain unused or unusable features. Several factors contribute to these outcomes, including the use of outdated development practices and, in some cases, overly narrow interpretations of what is allowed by acquisition regulations. OMB is developing tools to significantly upgrade the ability of Government digital services to deliver better results to our citizens and improve the way we capitalize on information technology (IT [1]) to better serve the American people.
One tool is the Digital Services Playbook, which identifies a series of “plays” drawn from proven private sector best practices to help agencies successfully deliver digital services. Another tool is the TechFAR, which highlights flexibilities [2] in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR [3]) that can help agencies implement “plays” in the Playbook that would be accomplished with acquisition support.
The vision for the TechFAR is that it will be expanded in future iterations to address many areas of IT. This edition of the TechFAR is aligned with the Digital Services Playbook guidance to use contractors to support an iterative development process. In particular, it emphasizes Agile software development [4], a technique for doing modular contracting and a proven commercial methodology that is characterized by incremental and iterative processes where releases are produced in close collaboration with the customer. This process improves investment manageability, lowers risk of project failure, shortens the time to realize value, and allows agencies to better adapt to changing needs. Agile software development is geared towards projects where significant design and development are needed, such as digital services (e.g., healthcare.gov or recreation.gov) as well as internal digital services and business systems. It is not designed to be used for commodity IT purchases, especially where commercially available off-the-shelf items can be used as-is at a lower cost and lower risk to the Government….
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The answer seems to be a hopeful yes. At least 100 buildings each in 50 cities will be made accessible in a couple of years. These are part of the much hyped, technology intensive and ambitious ‘Smart Cities’ in the country. The Government had decided to turn 100 cities Smart.
The Government has selected these 50 cities under the Accessible India Campaign. Accordingly, the focus will be on auditing and ensuring access to atleast 25-50 of the most important government buildings in these cities fully accessible to these people by the end of 2017. By end of 2018, the target is to cover 50 per cent of all government building of the national capital region and all state capitals within reach….
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The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has released a video introducing Web Accessibility and W3C Standards. The four-minute video highlights why accessibility is the right thing to do, how it is essential for people with disabilities and useful for all. It was published as part of an accessibility project the Internet Society (ISOC) is working on to realize their vision: “The Internet is for Everyone”. It is also timed in recognition of the United Nation’s annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December. For more videos and information on specific accessibility topics, see Web Accessibility Perspectives Videos: Explore the Impact and Benefits for Everyone. For a general introduction, see Accessibility – W3C.
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This article was contributed by Jeff Kline, the author of Strategic IT Accessibility: Enabling the Organization. Kline is the current Statewide Electronic and Information Resources (EIR) Accessibility Coordinator at the Texas Department of Information Resources and previous EIR Accessibility Coordinator at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Before entering public service, he spent 26 years at IBM, during which he managed its Worldwide Accessibility Consulting and Business Transformation initiatives and several other efforts related to product development, industrial design, software development and system usability.
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Creating Web accessibility policy has become a common approach taken by education institutions and others (e.g., local, state, and federal government agencies, and businesses). These organizations want to ensure accessibility for all their constituents (e.g., clients, users and staffs) including those with disabilities. Often this is because organizations see the value in accessibility for (1) ethical, (2) business, or (3) legal reasons. Policy then becomes a mechanism to realize the commitment or obligation the organization has to an accessible Web presence.
Establishing policy provides recognition that system reform does not occur in a vacuum. Moreover, policy assures that access is to be equal across the entire system, rather than at the discretion of individuals within the system. Finally, policy helps align organizational resources to accomplish newly defined priorities. In the case of Web accessibility, it can be a complex issue in part because of the shear size of the problem. Moreover, the presence of a policy can act as a demonstration of a good faith effort to comply with applicable statues (e.g., Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and state laws)….
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Medellín, Colombia used to be notorious for the dangers of homicide and drugs and used street art as part of its revitalization strategies. Photo © Juancho Torres (Source: theguardian.com)
Citizens are the life of a city. We drive the growth, and we have the right and responsibility to take care of our natural and built-up environments.
We are faced with everyday challenges in our cities, from hours of traffic to parking spaces, lining up for the MRT or the shuttle vans, inhaling all the air pollution, and finding safe places to walk on so we get from one point to another. So how do we improve our situation?
Here are 10 things everyone can do to improve city life….
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The tech giant is tapping into its global army of users to make its Maps app more useful for people with disabilities.
If there’s one thing Google’s got at its disposal, it’s a global army of avid map users. Now the company is leveraging that power to make its Maps feature more useful for people with mobility challenges—a group that often gets overlooked in the world of transit and urban innovation.
Google Maps already indicates if a location is wheelchair accessible—a result of a personal project by one of its employees—but its latest campaign will crowdsource data from its 30 million Local Guides worldwide, who contribute tips and photos about neighborhood establishments in exchange for points and small prizes like extra digital storage space. The company is calling on them to answer five simple questions—like whether a building has accessible entrances or bathrooms—when they submit a review for a location. In the coming weeks, Google will host workshops and “geowalks” specifically focused on mobility across seven cities, from New York City and London to Tokyo and Surabaya, Indonesia….
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Smart Cities for the Blind Posted by Lena Jukna on Nov 16, 2017 categories: Smart City tags: Accessibility, Blind, Inclusivity, smart city, Smart Technology, Urban Mobilty, Visual Impaired Would you be able to find your way across a big city at rush hour if you were visually impaired? 285 million visually impaired people worldwide are facing this challenge every day,…
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he EU Council signalled its readiness Thursday to start talks with the European Parliament on the accessibility directive, to make everyday products and services more accessible to people with a disability.
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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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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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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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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 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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Past surveys have shown only a minority of people understand the concepts behind the smart cities movement. Nevertheless, given the choice between living in a dumb city and a smart city, who wouldn’t choose the latter? You’d be surprised. Teena Maddox () reports over a third of surveyed people have little desire to live in smart cities. “The lure of living in a technologically advanced community appeals to many Americans,” she writes, “although many don’t quite understand what the term smart city means, according to a new report from CompTIA. The Building Smarter Cities and Communities report, which surveyed both private citizens and US government officials, showed that six out of 10 Americans are interested in living in a smart city.”[1] That means 4 in 19 aren’t interested.
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The Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environments (GAATES) is the leading international organization dedicated to the promotion of accessibility of the built and virtual environments and to promoting the Guiding Principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), adopted in December 2006.
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Projections from the United Nations state that by 2050 two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. As our metropolises continue to become smarter through technical innovation, we must make sure that the UK becomes a leader in accessibility, and prioritise the installation of smart lifts.
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