Microsoft on Wednesday announced the launch of its Smart Cities for All Toolkit, a guide that helps city leaders combine technology and smart city initiatives to benefit their citizens, with a particular focus on residents with a disability.
“There are more than 1 billion people in the world who have a disability, whether permanent or temporary, including visual, mobility, hearing, cognitive, speech, and neural. We believe our focus on accessibility helps us achieve Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more,” said Toni Townes-Whitley, corporate vice president of Microsoft worldwide public sector and industry.
Microsoft and its partners, Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict) and World ENABLED, developed the toolkit as a part of the Smart Cities for All Initiative, whose mission is “to eliminate the digital divide for persons with disabilities and older persons in smart cities around the world.”
“This confluence of diverse people with diverse needs, meeting limited city resources and infrastructure, is creating new opportunities for government and business to address challenges with technology innovation and drive meaningful societal change. Digital technology can help us do both,” said Townes-Whitley.
The toolkit contains information communication technology (ICT) standards for governments to adopt, model procurement policies, a communication guide on the advantages of ICT accessibility, and a database of accessible smart city solutions.
The toolkit is available for download on the Smart Cities for All website.
