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Smart Cities for All at a Glance
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March 19, 2019 | Issue 2
The Smart Cities for All global initiative continues to be active with partners around the world! Explore our monthly 'Smart Cities for All at a Glance' newsletter and visit our website for more information.
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Inclusive Innovation for Smarter Cities
Smart Cities for All is implementing a new Inclusive Innovation for Smarter Cities project with the support and strategic partnership of AT&T. The goal of the Inclusive Innovation for Smarter Cities project is to infuse urban innovation ecosystems with a greater understanding of inclusion, accessibility, and disability. In the framework of the project we have launched the survey targeting incubators, accelerators, developers, entrepreneurs, disability and accessibility leaders, governments, technology companies, and venture capitalists to assess the current state of inclusive innovation and get perspective on how to address related challenges. We encourage you to take this short 4-minute survey to share with us your insights on and objectives for inclusive innovation. As the next step, our team is working on the draft Inclusive Innovation for Smarter Cities tool based upon the results of the survey, outcomes of two roundtables held in Chicago and New York in Fall 2018 and interviews with experts in innovation, inclusion, disability, smart city programs, and universal design. The tool will help to both foster entrepreneurship and ensure that new smart city solutions and technologies are usable by all citizens. The tool will be launched in Spring 2019. More details about a series of launch events will be forthcoming.
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The Smart City Digital Inclusion Maturity Model
The city of Raleigh, North Carolina, will be the second pilot city to assess its digital inclusion maturity using the Smart Cities for All Digital Inclusion Maturity Model. A Smart Cities for All expert team will visit the city late next month. The Smart City Digital Inclusion Maturity Model tool helps cities evaluate the current state of ICT accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities in city digital and smart services. Focused on a broad range of functions important to all cities, such as communications, procurement, training, and technology standards, it defines key performance indicators and metrics to support advancing accessibility and digital inclusion in a smart city context. The tool’s five levels of maturity for digital inclusion guide cities in assessing and tracking their progress across multiple smart city dimensions, e.g. vision, culture, process, technology, and data.
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SC4A in the News
Presenting the latest articles where our work has been recognized and published.
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[ARTICLE] Technology can be used to make cities more accessible. More than 90% of experts agree or strongly agree that smart cities initiatives leveraging ICT accessibility would help persons with disabilities and older persons to be more included in their communities.
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[ARTICLE] While smart cities are in to provide better infrastructure and technology for people with disabilities, most smart cities do not seem to be accommodating people with disabilities much better than current cities. Smart Cities for All found that 60 percent of the more than 400 global experts they surveyed from government, industry and academia agreed that smart cities are failing people with disabilities.
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[VIDEO] Did you miss the terrific keynote by our Managing Director, James Thurston at Zero Project Conference 2019? Be sure to catch him at 8:38 in the YouTube video from #ZeroCon19.
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[ARTICLE, AUDIO] The push to make cities smarter often disproportionately favors people without disabilities. Experts argue that the dynamic must change so that large segments of the population aren't left out, and that broader community engagement is required to achieve truly inclusive cities. The article is a result of a SC4A panel discussion at SXSW with James Thurston (G3ict), Karen Tamley (Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, City of Chicago), Megan Lawrence PhD (Accessibility Technical Evangelist, Microsoft) and Enrique De La Madrid (VP, Tecnológico de Monterrey). Listen to the recording for the panel Strategies to Achieve Smart and Accessible Cities.
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Regina Cohen, Smart Cities for All and GAATES Country Representative for Brazil will join the panel 'Planning Sustainable and Resilient Cities' on March 21, moderated by Jamile Sabatini (Director of Innovation and Development, IBES, Brazil) with other speakers including Firmino Soares (Mayor, City of Teresina, Brazil), Chico Brasileiro (Mayor, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil), Ana Cristina Wollmann (Advisor, Municipal Secretariat for Planning, Finance and Budget, Brazil).
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Smart Cities New York (SCNY) is North America's leading global conference for innovators and decision-makers who are improving life in the cities of tomorrow. James Thurston, Managing Director of Smart Cities for All, will be curating a panel spotlighting our work and our partners in leading cities and companies. More information forthcoming.
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As the employment landscape evolves, it is important to pay attention to the potential impact on underrepresented populations, such as people with disabilities. Recognizing this important gap, representatives from state, local and federal governments; community organizations; private companies; and philanthropic and academic institutions have joined together through an initiative organized by SourceAmerica® and The Lab at OPM to gain a better understanding of the current state of disability employment in the U.S. and the changes needed to create a more inclusive future. For more details, contact SourceAmerica®.
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