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  • “The Smart Cities for All Toolkit
    empowers city leaders and
    urban planners to make
    their programs truly ‘smart’ by being
    inclusive and accessible by design.”
    - Toni Townes-Whitley, Vice President, Microsoft.

Welcome to Smart Cities for All

Mission

Our Mission is to eliminate the digital divide for persons with disabilities and older persons in Smart Cities programs worldwide.

Vision

Smart Cities are inclusive and use innovative technologies to benefit persons with disabilities and older persons.

Country Advisory Network

Smart Cities for All benefits from a global Country Advisory Network. This network includes unpaid advocates that promote G3ict/SC4All mission through collaboration with local and national governments, civil society, and private sector stakeholders in making global cities more inclusive in the context of the UN SDGs (#11), the UN Habitat III New Urban Agenda, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Country Advisory Network brings to their countries the global work of Smart Cities for All, a broad understanding of accessibility and universal design for technologies and environments, the UN CRPD, and the perspectives of a variety of disabilities. Meet our country advisorsExternal Website that opens in a new window

Smart Cities for All Advisory Committee Members

The Smart Cities for All Advisory Committee includes disability leaders with deep knowledge of and expertise in disability rights, cities, assistive technologies, information technologies, and Smart City solutions. The role of the Advisory Committee is to help to continue expanding the SC4A scale and impact; provide feedback to the SC4A staff on the current projects and opportunities; suggest outreach opportunities and possible cooperation with other organizations; etc. Learn more about members of the SC4A Advisory CommitteeExternal Website that opens in a new window

G3ict's Smart Cities for All Toolkit

The toolkit contains four tools to help Smart Cities worldwide include a focus on ICT accessibility and the digital inclusion of persons with disabilities and older persons.

The toolkit supports a range of organizations and roles related to Smart Cities, including government managers, policy makers, IT professionals, disability advocates, procurement officials, technology suppliers, and developers who design Smart City apps and solutions.

Each of the tools addresses a priority challenge identified by global experts as a barrier to the digital inclusion of persons with disabilities and older persons in Smart Cities.

 

 Measuring & Benchmarking

G3ict’s Smart City Digital Inclusion Maturity Model© and Smart University Digital Inclusion Maturity Model© tools help cities and higher education institutions assess and benchmark their level of digital inclusion and ICT accessibility. G3ict is currently deploying both assessment tools through its global partner ecosystem.

Learn more about how to measure accessibility and inclusion in cities and higher educationExternal Website that opens in a new window

Our Data

The Smart Cities for All initiative confirms through its research that most of today’s Smart Cities, in both the global north and the global south, are not fully accessible. The result is a growing digital divide for persons with disabilities and older persons.

The Smart Cities for All initiative engages experts and communities in an ongoing way to generate new data and learnings related to digital inclusion in Smart Cities.

Highlights from the Smart Cities for All Global Survey

In 2016-17, the initiative surveyed more than 400 international experts from city governments, industry, civil society, and academia, and convened a series of expert roundtable discussions with program managers, disabled persons organizations, and technologists in Smart Cities worldwide. Our work is informed by this rigorous research.

DOWNLOAD HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR GLOBAL SURVEY (Powerpoint PPT fileOpens in a new window)

Smart Cities are Leaving Millions of People Behind

of global experts believe that Smart Cities are failing persons with disabilities.

Smart Cities are Not Accessible

of global experts know of a Smart City that uses ICT accessibility standards.

Disability and the Digital Divide

of Americans with disabilities never go online, compared with 8% of the general US population.

What People Are Saying

- Vladimir Cuk, Executive Director, International Disability Alliance

G3ict and World Enabled’s Smart Cities for All initiative exposes a stark problem and describes the growing risk for persons with disabilities in today’s Smart Cities - a growing digital divide.

- Victor Calise, Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, NY

New York City has increased its commitment to digital inclusion and the tools that G3ict and World Enabled are building are the exact steps that Smart Cities need to follow.

- Toni Townes-Whitley, Vice President, Microsoft

The Smart Cities for All Toolkit empowers city leaders and urban planners to make their programs truly ‘smart’ by being inclusive and accessible by design.

Moving Forward

G3ict and its partners believe that six interrelated strategies can help address the barriers to digital inclusion in today’s global Smart Cities. The six strategies described in this document will help ensure that Smart Cities worldwide, their policies, programs, and growing technology investments, will not leave behind persons with disabilities and older persons.

Download the Six Strategies Towards More Inclusive Smart Cities WorldwidePDF File Opens in a new window

Smart Cities for All: A Vision for an Inclusive, Accessible Urban Future

AT&T and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) have created this report to help cities identify ways that smart city technologies can adopt a people-first approach to benefit people with disabilities and older citizens. The paper takes its name from the G3ict and World Enabled Smart Cities for All global initiative.

Download the Smart Cities for All: A Vision for an Inclusive, Accessible Urban FuturePDF File Opens in a new window

Stay Informed

G3ict’s Smart Cities for All global initiative publishes a monthly newsletter that is a great source for updates about our latest projects, events as well as news from our network organization, the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. If you have not yet signed up for our newsletter and are interested in doing so, please subscribe to our newsletter.

Access the Newsletter Archives Opens in a new window

Microsoft Support

Microsoft is pleased to support the SC4A initiative and shares the belief that technology empowers persons with disabilities to achieve more in the places where they live and work. For more on MSFT's commitment to cities and its commitment to accessibility visit:

Key Terms

Any person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. These limitations are in part shaped by environmental barriers that hinder a person’s full participation in society on an equal basis with others. Older persons can acquire such impairments as part of the aging process.

The Smart Cities Council defines a Smart City as one that “uses information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance its livability, workability, and sustainability.”

ICT accessibility is generally accepted as being the quality of a mainstream technology such as a computer, mobile phone, self-service kiosk, or piece of software, to be used by the widest range of users possible regardless of their abilities or disabilities.