Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
When urban planners envision their work for the 21st century, many often say it’ll begin with fixing the shortcomings put in place in the 20th century. However, the question remains whether professionals can make those changes quickly enough to avoid the worst consequences of their mistakes. Here are four urban planning fails that should be near the top of the list as professionals assess what to address first.
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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 56.7 million people — nearly one in five Americans — have a disability, such as vision loss, hearing loss or mobility impairments. People with disabilities face many challenges when websites are not accessible. For example, individuals who are blind may not be able to navigate a website using a screen reader if the website…
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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 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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Accessibility Guidelines Making all things accessible creates a better experience across the board. Use this checklist to help build accessibility into your process no matter your role or stage in a project. There’s information and resources for: Designers, Engineers, Project Managers and more. There’s a a Quality Assurance Section and links to relevant Accessibility websites and toolkits. While visiting the…
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Designing for Inclusion Inclusive design, design for all, digital inclusion, universal usability, and similar efforts address a broad range of issues in making technology available to and usable by all people whatever their abilities, age, economic situation, education, geographic location, language, etc. Accessibility focuses on people with disabilities — people with auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual impairments. The…
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At Digital Services Georgia, we believe we have a social responsibility to make government content readily available to everyone. Our platform, used by over 75 state agencies in Georgia, features code, structure, and designs that are optimized for accessibility. Partnering with subject matter experts from the AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center and the state’s ADA Coordinator’s Office, we make…
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“Four-Hospitality: Friendly Smart City Design for Disability” Hatma Suryotrisongkoa, Reginia Cindy Kusumaa, RV Hari Ginardib There are four standards that we define to make the right smart city designs for the disabled people. Namely Four-Hospitality, which consists of accessible, safety, problem solve, and flexible. The Four-Hospitality will become the standard benchmark assessment of smart city design. In this research…
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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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Beginning Jan. 18, 2018, government agencies across the U.S. will be required by law to make their websites accessible to the more than 60 million Americans with visual, hearing or other disabilities. Yet more than 87 percent of 430+ local government respondents to Vision’s 2017 What’s Next Survey said they have moderate, weak or no knowledge of federal web accessibility requirements.
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With 2018 approaching, federal agencies are preparing for a major update to the government’s digital accessibility requirements — standards that are designed to modernize and widen access for disabled users.
The specifications, that take effect in January, establish new guidelines to help seeing- and hearing-impaired residents access information on government websites, apps and from other digital media. The rules target federal agencies, but are intended to be a reference point for states and cities.
The changes come through an update to Section 508, a 2001 amendment of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The U.S. Access Board, an independent federal agency that promotes equality for people with disabilities, announced in an overview of the update that one of the most significant revisions is a wider application of the rules…..
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Cities need to make better use of resources and become more efficient: Policies, regulation, citizen involvement and standards are all key components needed to build a viable Smart City. While all are important, in a path towards smarter cities, standardization will play a key role in ensuring consistent outcomes. Standards are relevant in the physical world, where they allow for the interconnection of hardware and technologies, but also in the virtual space where they facilitate data collection/sharing as well as city operation….
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This post is part of Complete Streets month at Smart Growth America; we will be sharing a series of blog posts that cover and explain each of the 10 revised policy elements in some detail.
Complete Streets implementation relies on using the best and latest state-of-the-practice design standards and guidelines to maximize design flexibility. Creating meaningful change on the ground both at the project level and in the creation of complete, multimodal transportation networks requires jurisdictions to create or update their existing design guidelines and standards to advance the objectives of the Complete Streets policy. Road design is key to truly make streets safer and accessible for all people regardless of age, race, ethnicity, ability, income, or how they choose to travel….
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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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EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Nov. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — In less than 70 days, local government agencies across the U.S. are required to make website content and all digital information accessible to all users, including those with visual, hearing or other disabilities. Vision, the innovators in website design and software for local government, today announced a number of services and free resources…
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Undergirding all of the promising services that figure to play prominently in tomorrow’s more sustainable, “smart” cities—new economic and governance models, improvements in personal health and public safety, advanced capabilities for traffic, waste and water management, etc.—will be foundational information and communications technologies (ICT) and networking capabilities that are rapidly emerging around the world today. And undergirding augmented reality, cloud…
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New Accessibility Regulations for N.L. Buildings, Parking Lots November 3, 2017 admin New regulations for parking lots, washrooms, wheelchair ramps and more included in amendments CBC News Posted: Oct 23, 2017 Service NL is bringing in new regulations which will bring Newfoundland and Labrador up to national standards for having accessible buildings and facilities. The Newfoundland and Labrador government says…
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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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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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Every design decision has the potential to include or exclude customers. Inclusive design emphasizes the contribution that understanding user diversity makes to informing these decisions, and thus to including as many people as possible. User diversity covers variation in capabilities, needs and aspirations. This site first presents an example set of ‘Product performance indicators’, i.e. things that should be considered…
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