Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
It’s not just about meeting the regulations, it’s about making GOV.UK accessible for everyone. It’s important to us that we do not stop at meeting the standards. GOV.UK should be accessible for everyone so we’re aiming to fix the other accessibility issues we found, even if they’re not covered by WCAG.
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How Well Are We Ensuring Contactless Fare Payment Is Accessible and Equitable for Everyone? Considering equity and accessibility issues from the beginning will help ensure all travellers have barrier-free access to these new systems.
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Travelling to work, meeting friends for a catch up or just doing some shopping are often taken for granted by people with no known disabilities. For the visually impaired, these seemingly simple things can be a serious challenge. But imagine a city equipped with technology that enables the visually impaired to recognize people, places or even bank notes, helping them…
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Whether for work or personal enjoyment, reading has long-lasting social and cognitive benefits. However, for seniors experiencing barriers to reading such as low vision or a physical impairment, using traditional print materials is a struggle, if not impossible. Benetech’s growing library of over 685,000 accessible titles, Bookshare, enables seniors to read in ways that work for them, choosing from a…
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Smart technologies, such as robotic telepresence and the Internet of Things (IoT), are capturing the attention of adaptive technology programs in state and local governments, as well as educational institutions, according to experts. IoT and robotic telepresence are among the latest adaptive technology (AT) efforts states are deploying, as they seek to deliver on the 30-year-old Technology-Related Assistance Act of…
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An Overview for Legal Teams on ADA, Section 508 Issues Affecting Websites and Other Digital Assets Business owners, legal teams, web and communications teams, and developers are experiencing a wave of legal actions and civil rights complaints. These actions—and the resulting court decisions—are stretching society’s understanding of what constitutes online discrimination and how the ADA and related laws apply to…
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Although the quantity of people using technology in their everyday lives is constantly rising, a relatively high percentage of the world’s population remains digitally disengaged or even technologically illiterate. In the European Union alone, nearly a third of people don’t use the internet on a daily basis; only half of all Europeans aged 16 – 74 use social networks or…
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently hosted its annual Assistive Technology Hackathon (ATHack), an event that brings together people with disabilities and students from the graduate to Ph.D. level to work on prototypes for assistive tools. During this year’s multidisciplinary event, teams built “an accessible beanbag-toss game, a personalized blood pressure cuff, a portable and collapsible shower chair, battery and…
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Thoughtful Leadership Is the First Step Toward Equitable Smart Cities Smart city solutions could be contributing to the digital divide. Local and conscious solutions can bring equity back in focus. Brooks Rainwater is the senior executive and director of the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Center for City Solutions. Rainwater drives the organization’s research agenda, community engagement efforts, and leadership…
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Smart Cities Need Technology That Understands All Humans Cities need to be accessible to all, including those with hearing and sight impairments, and restricted mobility The world’s cities and their populations are growing at an unprecedented rate. The United Nations predicts that by 2050, 66 percent of the world’s population will live in urbanized areas, compared to just a…
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Government is transforming applications, contracts, and payment portals to all be housed online. This is incredible, but only if you have all three legs of the stool — the internet in your home, a computer beyond a smart phone, and the digital literacy training to help you use these tools to access the resources needed. As Pittsburgh develops as a technology city…
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The American people expect to interact with government through digital channels such as websites, email, and mobile applications. By building digital services that meet their needs, we can make the delivery of our policy and programs more effective.
Today, too many of our digital services projects do not work well, are delivered late, or are over budget. To increase the success rate of these projects, the U.S. Government needs a new approach. We created a playbook of 13 key “plays” drawn from successful practices from the private sector and government that, if followed together, will help government build effective digital services….
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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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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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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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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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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 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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Microsoft CityNext is empowering cities to digitally transform and unlock their potential by delivering smart city inclusive innovations Source: Microsoft CityNext: Technology solutions for smart cities
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http://www.koreaherald.com/ 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 networks like never before. And in a world where some 3.9 billion citizens remain offline, there is a very…
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