Global Resources and Promising Practices for Building and Refining Accessible and Inclusive Smart Cities from Darren Bates LLC.
Location shouldn’t be a barrier and neither should a disability. Disability groups have been lobbying for better accessibility on transport for many years. How many times have you got on a train to find there was a lack of space for wheelchair users, or that there wasn’t a toilet on board? For many people this can be extremely limiting.
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Digital accessibility is in a better state today than it has ever been—but we still have a long way to go. The emergence of IoT devices have made life easier for those with disabilities, but has this been a conscious effort on behalf of industry-leading brands, or just a fortunate side effect of omnichannel marketing? dotCMS is a proud supporter…
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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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“Cities only work when you think about the people” One of the most important issues of our time is how we make better cities, writes editor Andrew Tuck in the introduction to The Monocle Guide to Building Better Cities. It is about “making places that deliver quality of life for all”. For a growing number of professionals in the real…
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With the government recently announcing plans to make Changing Places toilets mandatory in all new large public buildings, Nicholas Bungay, director of strategy and external affairs at Habinteg, examines how to ensure venues are open to everyone It’s reasonable to expect to be able to use a toilet when you’re out and about, whether for a football game, concert, show,…
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AV companies are understandably focused on trying to perfect their technology to address trust issues among the general public, but meanwhile, they’re working on designs for those who could benefit most from mobility technology — the elderly and people with disabilities.
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Accessible Public Transportation and Housing, a Need for People with Disabilities in Major Cities This article is part of a series of stories on disability inclusion. – Even though over six billion people—nearly one billion of whom will have disabilities— are expected to live in urban centres by 2050, many of the world’s major urban cities have a long…
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Cities sometimes fail to make sure the technologies they adopt are accessible to everyone. Activists and startups are working to change that. Victor Pineda travels the world to make speeches and advise governments on urban planning and development. But when he encounters a touch-screen kiosk, he’s stymied. For people like him, who use wheelchairs and have limited use of their…
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An initiative to create Chennai’s first inclusive play space was inaugurated today via videoconferencing by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. A park for children of all hues A park that welcomes every child Play experiences for those who move on wheels … and for those who don’t. Swings and sand pit, slides and seesaws, Merry-go-rounds and climbers, basketball and…
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How many times in the past year have you heard someone say that the future of mobility is shared, electric, autonomous and connected? While this utopian view sounds like something we should strive for, we are missing two critical aspects of mobility, says Carol Schweiger, President of Schweiger Consulting and Chairperson of the New England Intelligent Transportation Society: accessibility and inclusivity. It…
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If you want to complain about your commute with Valerie Piro, chances are she’ll one-up your horror story. “Recently, there was an issue on an express bus with getting me off the bus and this loud alarm started blaring for, oh, a solid five minutes while the driver got me off,” said Piro, who’s working on her Ph.D in medieval…
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On Wednesday, November 14, 2018 — Amsterdam, Barcelona and New York City formally launched the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights, a joint initiative to promote and track progress in protecting residents’ and visitors’ digital rights. The Cities Coalition for Digital Rights builds upon five shared principles to create policies, tools and resources to promote and protect resident and visitor rights…
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Tech companies and persons with disabilities gathered on the 16th November in Vienna to debate how not to leave persons with disabilities behind technological breakthroughs. The purpose of the event was to take the opportunity to discuss how new technologies embrace human diversity, and how technological solutions can be designed for all, including for persons with disabilities. It is an…
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Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff at CityLab Detroit Sidewalk Labs is building a prototype for the urban future on Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront. This project asks us to re-think relationships between governments, the private sector, and residents. Dan Doctoroff, Founder and CEO, Sidewalk Labs joins Jennifer Bradley, The Aspen Institute at CityLab Detroit. Timed Transcript: Please see video option. Transcript: (Archived…
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A Smart City Is an Accessible City. A new breed of accessibility apps can make life easier for people with disabilities. They can also make it harder. A group gathers on a Nashville street corner, some rolling in wheelchairs and others walking. They have arrived holding their smartphones and make friendly chatter while a coordinator helps them log in to…
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Inclusive ‘smart city’ development doesn’t necessarily mean we should ‘build for everyone’. Many desire to design products and services ‘for everyone’ — the wider we cast our net, the more fish we’ll catch. This is not necessarily true. It’s far too easy to make assumptions about how ‘everyone’ fits into our ideal ‘smart’ environment. It is easier still to assume…
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The Promise and Peril of “Smart” Cities Technology can help us govern better, but at what price to urban life? Technology can help us govern better, but at what price to urban life actual article chapter content Last year, American newspapers published more than 800 stories about “smart” cities. Readers could learn how municipal governments are deploying sophisticated technology to…
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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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Cities are serious business – economic powerhouses with their own delicate ecosystems – but that doesn’t mean designing them shouldn’t be fun. In Barcelona they made it a game. Like a Spanish translation of SimCity, the popular ’90s video game for imagining cities that plays on Nintendo’s moustachioed mascot Mario, SuperBarrio offers real residents the chance to determine how their…
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Watch the Video! In our third public talk, author and community organizer Jane Farrow will moderate a conversation with three accessibility experts who are challenging cities to incorporate principles for inclusive design and ensure accessibility for all: Luke Anderson – Founder & Executive Director – StopGap Foundation; Consultant – AccessAbility Advantage Darren Bates – Founder – Smart Cities Library™;…
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