TALK SHOW “THE ACCESSIBILITY OF A SMART CITY”

On 26 October 2020, Disability Research And Capacity Development (DRD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organizeda talkshow “The Accessibility toofa smart city”. The representatives of the state agency, the expertson urban and architectural planning; social organizations specializing in disability sector; people with disabilitiesand general public caring about accessibilitywill discuss how to develop a smart and friendly city for everybody.

Dr. Vo Thi Hoang Yen at the talk show 

What is an accessible and smart city?

According to Mr. Vũ Chí Kiên – Head of Architectural Research Centre, the Department of Planning and Architecture,a smart city will be based on database system and systems using data such as Internet of Things (IoT), Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) to make the urban smarter. For Ho Chi Minh City nowadays, the smart city will rely on four mainstays: a shared data center and an open data ecosystem, a smart city operations and control center; a simulation and forecasting center, and an information security center according to the project “BuildingHo Chi Minh City into a smart city from 2017 to 2020”

Ms. Dao Thu Huong, the UNDP’s representative, is speaking

Smart city – where problems are solved thanks to technology in order to create a more convenient and humane environment – tends to decrease physical interaction and increase accessibility. Accessibility is used to describe the ability of usability of more and more users. It also pertains to people with disabilities, and shows that whether  products, devices, services or the physical evidence, media environment are suitable for people with disabilitiesor not. Some developed countries pioneered and gave prominence to accessibility in products with universal design, despite having discrepancy in languages or limitations, users still can use easily. It is this factor that promoted the convenience for users, developed a group of customers or even promoted equal opportunities for social groups.

Who needs to care about the smart city?

According to Dr. Phạm Thái Sơn – Expert on city development, lecturer on sustainable city development program at Việt Đức University, a smart city is a general construction built by everybody and for everyone. To make the city more friendly for many people, every step of planning, implementing, using and supervising needs consultation of full of users and link among sides. Mr Trần Hữu Hoàng Phú – Head of EAI Viet Nam Company also said that designs of public works required to take accessibility factors into consideration, however, in the implementing process, there are also a lot of gaps that need supervising and repairing. Building the covering database system is the initial step for equality of access to information and complete collection of demands.

Some images at the talk show:

Ms. Nguyen Minh Chau is making questions

View of the talk show

At the end of the talk show

 The Accessibility Map Application – D.Map, one of the initiatives of peoplewith disabilities, collects the data about accessibility of over 15.000 public places (counted in 10/2020) and can contribute to shared data system to help 5-10 percent of country’s poputation, which means about over 6,5 million people with disabilities can move easily and even raise appearance, integration, and attendance, contribution ofthe persons with disabilities tosociety.

D.map is now available on Website, iOS and Android with twolanguage options of Vietnamese and English.

iOS:https://dmap.asia/ios.html
Android: https://dmap.asia/android.html
Web: https://dmap.asia

DRD Vietnam