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Railways Adopt Apps To Improve Accessibility For Wheelchair Users

Railways Adopt Apps To Improve Accessibility For Wheelchair Users

Railway operators in and outside Tokyo are turning to smartphone apps to make their services more accessible and convenient for passengers that use wheelchairs. Under one new system, an app allows station staff to internally share the information of where passengers board trains and at what time they will arrive at their destinations, so that they can help them get…

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City of Philadelphia Announces SmartCityPHL Augmented Reality Challenge to Support Public Transit Accessibility

a black woman exiting a city bus

PHILADELPHIA—The City of Philadelphia today announced SmartCityPHL’s new challenge, SEPTA for All: Augmenting Transit with Augmented Reality. The challenge invites innovators to submit ideas that would use augmented reality technology to make public transit more welcoming, comfortable, and accessible to people with disabilities. Applications are due August 2, 2021. “The pandemic amplified how critical public transit is to Philadelphians,” said…

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New Smart Tech Helps Visually Impaired South Koreans Increase Mobility

woman in wheelchair using her smart phone for wayfinding and accessible mapping

South Korea’s second largest city is using new, inclusive technology to bring down barriers to mobility for people who are blind.

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How Well Are We Ensuring Contactless Fare Payment Is Accessible and Equitable for Everyone?

How well are we ensuring that contactless fare payment is accessible and equitable?

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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Autonomous Vehicles Should Benefit People with Disabilities, But Progress Remains Slow

Autonomous vehicles should benefit those with disabilities, but progress remains slow | VentureBeat

An MIT report estimates truly autonomous vehicles might not hit the streets for a decade. And when they do, it’s difficult to say whether they will fully accommodate all riders, including those with disabilities. Driverless car technology promises to remove barriers to personal transportation, but few self-driving operators have made headway on solutions for customers with mobility, vision, and hearing…

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How Can Shopping Malls Be Accessible to People with Disabilities?

How Can Shopping Malls Be Accessible to People with Disabilities? – Inclusive City Maker

Over 116 000 shopping malls are spread in the United States of America and generate each year around 5 trillion dollars. But are they accessible for people with disabilities?

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Personalized Accessible Wayfinding for People with Disabilities Through Open Geospatial Data

Open Geospatial Data

Abstract Of the many features that smart cities offer, safe and comfortable mobility of pedestrians within the built environment is of particular importance. Safe and comfortable mobility requires that the built environments of smart cities be accessible to all pedestrians, mobility abled and mobility impaired, given their various mobility needs and preferences. This, coupled with advanced technologies such as wayfinding…

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Disability as an Innovation Driver for Smart Cities

Disability as an Innovation Driver for Smart Cities

A Smart City gives its citizens all the benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to provide them with services adapted to their needs in real time. This technology can be found at different levels of society such as education, transportation, the environment, health or safety. The overall objective of the smart city is therefore to improve the quality of…

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The Experiences of People with Disabilities and Urban Safety

The Experiences of People with Disabilities and Urban Safety

Creating safe and secure urban spaces is a core concern for city managers, urban planners and policy workers. Safety is a slippery concept to pin down, not least because it is a subjective experience. It incorporates our perceptions of places and memories, but also norms in society about who is expected to use spaces in the city, and who is…

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How Steep Is That Sidewalk? A Digital Map for People With Disabilities

woman in wheelchair using her smart phone for wayfinding and accessible mapping

Most people know about Seattle’s rain, but they’re surprised to learn that the city, especially the downtown area, is steeper than Denver, the “Mile High City.” Seattle’s hills can render many buildings and businesses, including places like City Hall, inaccessible to people with mobility needs. For those people, apps such as Google Maps are not especially helpful because they show…

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Accessibility & Inclusion For All

Accessibility & Inclusion For All

One billion people in the world today live with a disability, both in visible or invisible form. They are amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised in the world. How can we design a truly inclusive world that recognises the value and worth of people living with a disability? Source: http://www.weforum.org/

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Tying Safety and Accessibility in a 21st Century Mobility Strategy

Tying Safety and Accessibility in a 21st Century Mobility Strategy » Community | GovLoop

The concept of mobility encompasses far more than cars, buses, trains, taxis, bicycles and e-scooters.  In their carefully researched book, Smart Cities, Smart Future (Wiley, 2018), authors Mike Barlow and Cornelia Lévy-Bencheton argue persuasively that accessibility is a primary element in successful mobility strategies

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Will New York City Become the Most Accessible City in the World?

Will New York City Become the Most Accessible City in the World?

Do you think New York City can be the most accessible city in the world? That’s Victor Calise’s goal. He’s the Commissioner for the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, and Jay spoke with him about how his disability catapulted him into his professional journey. They discussed what accessibility on a broad scale means, and how his…

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City Planners Must Practice Everyone-Based Design

City Planners Must Practice Everyone-Based Design

I was once a live-in aide to a woman with multiple sclerosis named Marin. She was a 54-year-old Jewish hippie with a purple streak through her curly cloud of hair. She dyed the right ear of Jake, her white-furred poodle, to match. This was a conversation piece. Some people shied away from talking to her when she motored through town…

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The Connection Between Smart City Infrastructure and Accessibility

The Connection Between Smart City Infrastructure and Accessibility

The transit systems and social services of major metropolitan areas should be appealing to people with disabilities. Managing a condition that affects one’s vision, mobility, hearing or cognition is often easier in these environments — at least it should be in theory. The disconnect between theory and reality starts with problems in urban planning and development.

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Smart Transport Hub Matilda Can Increase Public Transportation For Disabled

Screenshot_2019-04-10 Smart transport hub Matilda can increase public transportation adoption

“The concept of a smart bus stop would address this and also help in inviting the community to start using public transport. We can use this technology to enable our disabled and elderly community, invite and give them the means to engage with autonomous vehicles in a more friendly and more accepting manner,” said Palmer. “Matilda is designed for people with a hearing handicap, visual impediment, or cognitive impairment. They can now be better facilitated to use public transportation independently.”

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Accessible Maps for India’s Disability Community

Screenshot_2019-03-26 View from India Wheelchair-accessible maps for the differently abled

Researchers with the Global Disability Innovation Hub, co-led by UCL (University College London) in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-Delhi), are developing wheelchair-accessible maps of Delhi, India. Described as Street Rehab, the collaborative project has been conceptualized with innovative sensing platforms. This is how it works. UCL has arrived at low-cost sensors that can identify features of…

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Smart Cities Hold the Key to Sustainable Development in Rapid Urbanisation

Smart Cities Hold the Key to Sustainable Development in Rapid Urbanisation

Asia and the Pacific’s phenomenal development has been a story of rapid urbanisation. As centres of innovation, entrepreneurship and opportunity, cities have drawn talent from across our region and driven economic growth which has transformed our societies. In South-East Asia alone, cities generate 65% of the region’s GDP. Yet, the ongoing scale of urbanisation is a considerable challenge, one which…

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Before Cities Become Smart, They Must Become Accessible

Before Cities Become Smart, They Must Become Accessible — Mobility Management

In the summer of 2018, start-up companies Lime and Bird flooded the streets of my hometown of Dallas with their electric scooters, which were followed by Razor scooters in the fall. Lime brands itself as “Smart Mobility for the Modern World,” and its Web site says that the company “is founded on the simple idea that all communities deserve access…

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