Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
Seniors, strollers, suitcases — it’s not just disabled people who use accessible infrastructure. Policy-makers need to reframe and broaden the conversation. It’s been a long time coming, but the federal government is expected to unveil national accessibility laws this spring. Similar legislation in other jurisdictions, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, was passed back in 1990. The most visible…
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Can technology help? Can machines or apps make life easier for a person with a disability? And are these industries doing enough to make their products – and the world – accessible to all? Of course and here’s how Anyone who uses the London Underground will recognise the monotonous tone of the robotic voice that tells us all to “mind…
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Sidewalk-Toronto is excited to announce their public engagement plan, outlining a series of events, activities, and opportunities designed to get citizens involved in the co-creation of their Smart City. Check it out: http://bit.ly/2BPhy8T
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(Getty Images) Washington, D.C. local government has formed a new think tank to prepare for the rise of autonomous vehicles. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday that the city organized the “Autonomous Vehicle Working Group” to to plan for the emerging technology. The group is composed of city staff with experience in transportation, the environment, public safety and disability rights and has the…
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“In the future, cities will evolve from being ‘smart’ to being ‘responsive’, meaning that the citizens will move from the centre of attention to the centre of the action.” – Anne Stenros, Helsinki City’s Chief Design Officer. Way back in 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was starting the maiden tenure of his leadership, he had announced his government’s vision…
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People with disabilities make up 17.9% of the UK population, but are only represented by 0.06% of people featured in adverts, according to Lloyds’ ‘Reflecting Modern Britain?’ inclusion and diversity report. The study examined 1,340 TV and press adverts from 40 brands paid for by the top 20 advertising spenders in 2015. On the other side of the world, Marketing…
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“Special Needs” No, I don’t think so. I Don’t Need To Be Massaged By A Cat Ask yourself: what “special needs” does a person with Down syndrome really have? Check out http://www.notspecialneeds.com to discover a new perspective.
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Submissions are now open for the six-week Open Innovation Competition, with $20,000 cash and up to $40,000 of in-kind prizes up for grabs for winning solutions. Chair of the City of Melbourne’s Knowledge City portfolio and Deputy Chair of the People City Portfolio, Councillor Dr Jackie Watts, said that the Open Innovation Competition aims to cultivate tangible solutions to make…
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‘I feel like a second-class citizen’: readers on navigating cities with a disability We asked readers with a disability to share their experiences – good and bad. Their responses show the many ways people can be shut out of their communities. Only 50 out of 270 tube stations are fully accessible. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian …
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What would a truly disabled-accessible city look like? Most cities are utterly unfriendly to people with disabilities – but with almost one billion estimated to be urban-dwellers by 2050, a few cities are undergoing a remarkable shift by Saba Salman To David Meere, a visually impaired man from Melbourne, among the various obstacles to life in cities is another that…
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The term “smart city” is interesting yet not important, because nobody defines it. “Smart” is a snazzy political label used by a modern alliance of leftist urbanites and tech industrialists. To deem yourself “smart” is to make the NIMBYites and market-force people look stupid.Smart-city devotees all over this world will agree that London is particularly smart. Why? London is a…
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Written by Herb Sih, Managing Partner Recently, Think Big Partners had the opportunity to help the City of Toronto work on its smart city plan by facilitating several citizen engagement workshops. These workshops, held simultaneously through the support of Cisco via Cisco Telepresence, allowed Toronto city officials to broadcast one central message from the Toronto Reference Library downtown to four…
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In this installment of the Innovation of the Month series (read last month’s story here), we explore the use of smart technologies to help blind and visually impaired people better navigate the world around them. A team at Ohio State University has been working on a “smart paint” application to do just that. MetroLab’s Executive Director Ben Levine sat down…
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Delegates at forum emphasize that advancing society through innovation must take priority Speakers at the IEEE 4th World Forum on Internet of Things emphasized that the technology is a means to improve and advance the lives of people and society. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY ASIA WEEKLY) It is about the people: This was the clear message from the IEEE…
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This story was originally published by Data-Smart City Solutions. Last week, the government of Hawaii accidentally sent a massive alert to citizens warning of an impending ballistic missile attack. The message ended with the ominous warning “this is not a drill,” only to alert Hawaiians some 40 minutes later that the original missive had been sent in error. Point being:…
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Begin: WordPress Article Content Technology has always been a critical force deeply intertwined with the evolution of cities. From the first human settlements millennia ago to the industrial revolution to today, technological breakthroughs have impacted the buildings we use, the way we get around and how we live, work and play in the urban space. The development of smart cities…
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In 1969, William H. “Holly” Whyte decided to analyze, and eventually decode, New York City’s rambunctious street life. A famed author, Whyte, along with a handful of collaborators, was recruited by the city’s planning commission to set up cameras and surreptitiously track human activity. Whyte and his team spent countless afternoons filming parks, plazas, and crosswalks, and even more time…
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For smart cities to reach their full potential, they need to focus on the citizens living in them, not just technology. Traditionally, smart cities have emphasised hardware – the internet of things, ‘big data’ and advanced computing – over the needs of people and the challenges they face living in cities. They have also emphasised marketing and promotion at the expense of hard evidence…
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Talking Tech: Design Thinking for Accessibility Accessible design enables people with disabilities to engage with digital products and services. Brightfind CEO Frank Klassen explains how associations can use design thinking principles to accommodate these users’ unique needs. Why should associations keep digital accessibility top of mind? One in five people in the United States has some sort of…
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With the urban share of the world’s population expected to increase to 70 percent by 2050, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy is introducing a new tool to help governments, city planners, NGOs, and developers make cities more equitable, healthy, safe, and vibrant. The simple solution? Walkability. The new tool, Pedestrians First: Tools for a Walkable City will facilitate…
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