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Category: Digital Inclusion

Fostering digital inclusion in smart cities | | Parameters

Smart City: Digital Inclusion

Concept

Digital Inclusion is the ability of individuals and groups to equitably access and use information and communication technologies.

Smart City Practice

Smart City must ensure all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have access to, and use of, Smart City information and communication technologies (ICTs).

This includes 5 elements: 1) affordable, robust broadband Internet service; 2) Internet-enabled devices that meet the needs of the user; 3) access to digital literacy training; 4) quality technical support; and 5) applications and online content designed to enable and encourage self-sufficiency, participation, and collaboration.

 Digital Equity ensures all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy.

Digital Equity is necessary for civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential services

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Accessibility to ICTs: Achieving equitable communications for everyone

Accessibility to ICTs: Achieving equitable communications for everyone

​​​​​​​15 per cent of the world’s population lives with a disability. This represents about 1 billion people globally. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones, satellites or the Internet, are a unique infrastructure that expand access to key  public services, promoting digital inclusion. Throughout the world, persons living with disabilities are already benefitting from the advantages of ICT-enabled applications. But…

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Now is the Time to Build Smarter and More Accessible #SmartCities

Screenshot-2017-11-14 Now is the Time to Build Smarter and More Accessible Cities

Now is the Time to Build Smarter and More Accessible Cities There are currently more than 1 billion persons with disabilities worldwide and the rate of urbanization is increasing throughout the world. By considering the needs of all people, we can design for and ensure that our cities become simultaneously smarter and more accessible. As cities invest in Smart City…

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Digital Accessibility Digest Archive

Screenshot-2017-11-10 Digital Accessibility Digest Archive – Microassist

Accessibility in the News—11/03/17. This issue: A journalist paralyzed for more than twenty years uses a high-tech exoskeleton to walk, new glasses enable a man born without optic nerves to read the abundance of text in his environment, and accessible computer applications provide a voice to a young college author and presenter with cerebral palsy. NOTE: To get news like…

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Avoiding Web Accessibility Issues | SYS-CON MEDIA

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PROVIDENCE, RI–(Marketwired – November 03, 2017) – As a major landmark in the fight for universal website accessibility, 2018 will usher in new legal regulations to be upheld by any business or organization with an online presence. Since the Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed in 2010 that websites should be considered as “places of public accommodation” as defined under the…

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World’s largest accessible digital library to expand to UAE

Screenshot-2017-11-3 World’s largest accessible digital library to expand to UAE

Middle East, Misc., November 3 2017 People with vision disabilities could soon have access to the world’s largest digital library which would also allow them to download and print braille. Benetech, a Silicon Valley company has recently begun working with Dubai Police and individual members to join its Bookshare library to give people with vision disabilities access to literature. The company…

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Criticism of India’s #SmartCities Mission is mounting | @Citiscope

Screenshot-2017-11-1 Criticism of India’s Smart Cities Mission is mounting

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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Why Does Mainstream Indian Smart City Discourse Leave Out Disability and Digital Inclusion?

Screenshot-2017-11-1 Why Does Mainstream Indian Discourse On Digital Inclusion Leave Out Disability

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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Making SMART Cities Accessible for Persons with Disabilities

Screenshot-2017-11-1 Making SMART Cities Accessible for Persons with Disabilities

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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EU Moves Toward Mandated Mobile App Accessibility @BOIAorg

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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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Smart Cities For All Digital Inclusion Maturity Model launch

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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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NYC launches #smartcity youth education program under innovation lab @NYC_CTO

Screenshot-2017-10-29 NYC launches smart city youth education program under innovation lab

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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SmartCities and ICT accessibility

Screenshot-2017-10-29 WTDC-17 Pre-event together for an #accessible world

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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@DisabilitySmart: the blog of Business Disability Forum

Screenshot-2017-10-27 Disability-smart the blog of Business Disability Forum

Hi, I am Paul Bepey, a registered blind person working in the field of Assistive Technology and Accessibility. As its World Sight Day today (12 October) I wanted to look at what assistive technology means now that more and more mainstream products have accessibility built in.So, these are my own views on what assistive tech means today. Source: Disability-smart: the…

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Digital Accessibility Digest Archive | @Microassist @hiramk

Screenshot-2017-10-27 MICROASSIST LOGO -Digital Accessibility Digest Archive – Microassist

Digital Accessibility Digest Stay on top of developments in website, elearning, and application accessibility. The Digital Accessibility Digest brings curated, Microassist original, and guest-provided news and information of interest to web, content, and application developers, as well as IT departments and legal counsel. Content focuses on the importance of implementing WCAG 2.0- and Section 508-specified accessibility practices that make digital…

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Auditors say city’s website needs improvement @Austin Monitor @mayoradler

Screenshot-2017-10-27 Auditors say city’s website needs improvement – Austin Monitor-a woman looking at art on a wall with text-Imagine Austin 5 year report

Auditors say city’s website needs improvement. The Office of the City Auditor has found that although the city’s website, AustinTexas.gov, offers residents numerous online services, the website does not meet accessibility guidelines, so it is difficult for people with certain disabilities to find and use those services The audit findings were released and accepted at Wednesday’s City Council Audit and…

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San Francisco Tech Council to advance a senior learning initiative

Screenshot-2017-10-26 Fujitsu Partners with San Francisco Tech Council to Host Preserving Memories Event-

Fujitsu, the market leader in document imaging scanners, today announced it will host an event with the San Francisco Tech Council to advance a senior learning initiative. Fujitsu, the Community Living Campaign and the San Francisco Tech Council (SF Tech Council) will team up to host a “Preserving Memories” event on Saturday, October 21, 2017 from 10 a.m. to 3…

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Are #smartcities failing the disabled and elderly? | @jamesthu @victorpineda #smartcities4all

Screenshot-2017-10-26 Are smart cities failing the disabled and elderly – Dr Victor Pineda, President of World Enabled, and James Thurston, G3ict’s Vice President for Global Strategy and Develop

During Smart Cities NYC 2017, a new toolkit, Smart cities for all, was released to help cities reduce the digital divide and make them accessible for all. Jonathan Andrews spoke to Dr Victor Pineda, President of World Enabled, and Co-Chair, Persons with Disabilities, on the General Assembly of Partners, the civil society body designed to help governments implement Habitat III.…

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#SmartCity Disability Infrastructure – Technology to accommodate all!

Screenshot-2017-10-26 Disability Infrastructure – Technology is being utilized to create spaces to accommodate all

Technology is being utilized to create spaces to accommodate all Implications – In the past, improving accessibility in spaces for those with disabilities focused on small changes to individual locations. Technology is enabling a shift toward more wide-spanning accommodation within large spaces. Leveraging geo-location, touchless monitoring, and 3D printing for these purposes speaks to a new era of AI that…

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OpenAIR Powered by Knowbility

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OpenAIR is a global web accessibility challenge that pairs teams of web developers with registered non-profits looking to create or improve their websites. 20th Annual OpenAIR is underway!  February 8, 2018 – May 15, 2018 Welcome to OpenAIR – the web accessibility challenge! Organized by Austin based nonprofit organization Knowbility, OpenAIR is a global web accessibility challenge that pairs participating teams of web developers and…

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Digital Inclusion #SmartCity Newslog

Screenshot-2017-10-20 Digital Inclusion Newslog(1)

Digital inclusion – ITU Telecommunication Development Sector Source: Digital Inclusion Newslog: Digital inclusion – ITU Telecommunication Development Sector

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