Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
Digital Inclusion is the ability of individuals and groups to equitably access and use information and communication technologies.
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
__________________________________________________
The “Readiness Workshop” was part of the Smart Cities grant and meant to serve as a jumpstart to help the city develop a roadmap to becoming a Smart City. The Office of Technology will also use a $200,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to create the actual roadmap. One thing that will set Philly apart from other cities’ roadmaps is…
Read More
In the midst of UKs National Inclusion Week 2017, which took place from September 25 to October 1, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sports updated its Digital Inclusion Evaluation Toolkit best known as “Evaluate IT.” This resource is a step-by-step guide for the evaluation of digital inclusion projects that enables organizations to measure impacts and find opportunity…
Read More
Victor Pineda and James Thurston receive award for global activism on behalf of persons with disabilities around the world San Rafael, CA – October 20th: Smart Cities for All, a joint initiative by G3ict and World Enabled, will be participating in Bioneers 2017 – Uprising, calling attention to the need for greater digital inclusion and accessible urban design in cities…
Read More
This is an adapted training course to introduce people to the concepts and terminology used around disability and accessibility in the workplace..
Read More
Almost two years ago, I had a phone call with James Thurston, G3ict’s Vice President for Global Strategy and Development, that would change… Source: Why Cities Should Build Smart, Urban and Inclusive Solutions for All
Read More
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…
Read More
To develop digital skills and improve accessibility, the City of Boston established a Digital Equity Fund on Friday to assist community organizations that help residents engage online.Mayor Marty Walsh said that before the end of the year, Boston will award $35,000 to local nonprofits that help close the digital equity gap in the city. The funding may be allotted to…
Read More
Digital Inclusion Events 2017 Source: Digital Inclusion Events
Read More
I recently attended the Smart Cities Conference in NYC’s Brooklyn Navy Yard where I interviewed Toni Townes-Whitley, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector and Industry for part one of this series. You can read my in-depth interview with her below to learn more about her vision for Smart Cities 2.0, her thoughts on Artificial Intelligence, and her work…
Read More
Criterion’s approach to ADA , Section 508, and WCAG testing is unparalleled in the industry because we test from a “real world” perspective by including expert auditors with disabilities. Criterion believes if you want to know whether a website is accessible, ask people with disabilities. Criterion also emphasizes knowledge transfer throughout every web accessibility project by providing our clients with…
Read More
Dominican Republic is adopting different strategies to promote equal access to digital literacy and infrastructure in the country as part of the Digital Republic national program. During the first week of September, a Digital Inclusion Center was created followed by an accessibility conference to raise awareness about the needs of persons with disabilities. The Digital Inclusion Center was created by…
Read More
This word ‘smart’ is mentioned in reference to cities a lot. There are endless conferences and trade fairs exploring ‘smart cities’ or ‘Internet of things’ technologies. Most cities now have tech weeks – and the term is now so regarded that it’s often capitalised as ‘SMART’. But spending time in this world, hearing from the many mayors at the many…
Read More
New Microsoft, UN partnership will focus on tech’s role in tackling human rights challengesThis information provided by Smart Cities Council Compassionate Cities.Wed, 2017-05-17 10:45 — Compassionate C…As human rights challenges in communities around the world not only proliferate but grow increasingly complex, we’re encouraged by the news this week that Microsoft is partnering with the United Nations Human Rights Office…
Read MoreKnobbly 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 More
Accessible Smart Cities Initiative By Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos on 6 February 2017. Posted in Intelligent Cities / Smart CitiesG3ict – the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies – and World Enabled teamed up to create the Defining Accessible Smart Cities Initiative.Sponsored by Microsoft, the initiative’s goal is to increase awareness of the role that accessible technology must play in…
Read More
What is it like to grow old in a city? That depends on a lot of things: health, wealth, friends, family, etc. But it also depends on the physical and technical infrastructure available. Unfortunately, many cities lack a proper infrastructure for the mobility-impaired, and many of the mobility technologies in use haven’t been updated in decades.Quality of life can be…
Read More
Meet the incredible young woman whose talk on disability rights was a hit at TEDx—and who had to fight to get that talk accessible to her fellow blind and deaf. Haben Girma starts our phone call with an explanation of how she will hear me. She begins most conversations like this, she says in a chipper voice, and she hasn’t…
Read More
Smart Cities for All: A Vision for an Inclusive, Accessible Urban Future The purpose of this paper is to highlight the potential for smart city technology to enable benefits for people who are aging and people who are living with disabilities, and to indicate suggested practices for building more inclusive smart cities. …
Read More
In December of 2015 the U.S Department of Transportation issued the Smart City Challenge to any mid size city in America. The challenge was for cities to “use data, applications, and technology to help people and goods move more quickly, cheaply, and efficiently”. 78 cities from across the country stepped up and presented their existing challenges and proposed solutions to becoming a Smart…
Read More
Smart is disrupting our world for the better – as ITU Telecom World 2017 recognises in its annual debate, networking and exhibition event, focusing this year on “Smart digital transformation.” But a smart society is dependent upon ICT infrastructure and networhttps://europeansting.com/ks like never before. And in a world where some 3.9 billion citizens remain offline, there is a very real…
Read More