ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Google.org and Goodwill, the United States’ leading workforce development nonprofit, have announced the launch of the Goodwill Digital Career Accelerator. Funded by a $10 million grant from Google.org and with the assistance of 1,000 Google volunteers, the new Goodwill initiative will enable more than one million people — including people with disabilities and…
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Why Chicago’s CIO left government for IoT initiative
Why Chicago’s CIO left government for IoT initiative As former city Chief Information Officer Brenna Berman reflects on her time with the city, she says a job where she can use the Internet of Things to improve city life was too good to pass up. Source: Why Chicago’s CIO left government for IoT initiative
Read MoreHeadset provides ‘3D soundscape’ to help blind people navigate cities | Art and design | The Guardian
Knobbly pavements and ticking pedestrian crossings are one thing, but the frustrating experience of getting around the city for visually impaired people could soon be revolutionised by a new navigational headset which claims to let you hear your surroundings as a “3D soundscape”.Developed by Microsoft and the Guide Dogs charity over the last two years, with the government-funded Future Cities Catapult, the headset contains a GPS tracker,…
Read MoreDigital Disruption is a human thing | Steve Vamos | TEDx
Source: http://www.bbc.com/storyworks/future/the-future-is-now/innovation Steve believes that now more than ever the old way of doing things is hurting more than helping. Digital disruption requires new ways of thinking. Here he explains why. Steve advocates that we need to think about how much of our conditioning at work is about doing what we’re told rather than about how to create the future.…
Read MoreHow to build inclusive and accessible smart cities for people with disabilities
Smart Cities NYC ’17: How to make urban areas inclusive and accessible for people with disabilities Length: 2:00 | May 9, 2017 Every city should have a chief accessibility officer to ensure inclusiveness for people with disabilities, according to Victor Pineda, president of World Enabled, which partnered with Microsoft for the creation of the Smart Cities for All Toolkit Video Source:http://www.techrepublic.com/videos/share/smart-cities-nyc-17-how-to-make-smart-cities-inclusive-and-accessible/
Read MoreSmart Cities Council | Digital skills are creating new opportunities for people with disabilities
Inclusion Summit Yoo, who is Senior VP for Corporate Affairs at Cisco, says over the years Cisco’s Networking Academy has benefited over 3,000 students with disabilities and the company has made a commitment to more than triple that number in the next five years. “We believe that helping people with disabilities develop technical skills is a win-win,” writes Woo. “It…
Read MoreMaps That You Can Hear and Touch – CityLab
Maps That You Can Hear and Touch Sighted people read maps almost every day. Maps help us get off at the right subway station, grasp global affairs, plan museum trips, and remember the new office floorplan. And our use of maps, and sense of what they represent, is based almost entirely on looking at them. So it’s disorienting to think…
Read MoreJoan Ganz Cooney Center – Advancing Children’s Learning in a Digital Age
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is an independent research and innovation lab that focuses on educating children in a rapidly changing media landscape. Source: Joan Ganz Cooney Center – Advancing Children’s Learning in a Digital Age
Read MoreSmart Cities Council | Survey spotlights families often left behind as technology advances
The quality of families’ Internet connections, and the kinds and capabilities of devices they can access, have considerable consequences for parents and children alike,” the report states. “When Internet access is intermittent — either because families have trouble paying monthly service charges or are using the Internet only in community locations — they face constraints on what they can…
Read MoreThe Digital Divide – ConnectHome
ConnectHome is a public-private collaboration to narrow the digital divide for families with school-age children who live in HUD-assisted housing. ConnectHome creates a platform for community leaders, local governments, nonprofit organizations, and private industry to join together and produce locally-tailored solutions for narrowing the digital divide. Through these stakeholders’ specific commitments to provide free or low-cost broadband access, devices, and digital…
Read MoreLeft behind in Gig City? How Chattanooga is promoting digital inclusion
A 2015 study by a University of Tennessee economist found that Chattanooga’s much heralded smart grid and citywide gigabit Internet service had resulted in at least 2,800 new jobs and added $865.3 million to the local economy. The figure was due to a reduction in power outages resulting in part from smart grid technologies provided by S&C Electric Co., plus…
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