**2. Conclusions**

Examples of smart cities include the Barcelona smart city initiative [23], the Padova smart city [22] and SmartSantander [18]. The main aim of the Padova smart city is encouraging early adoption of open data and ICT solutions by the city administration. It is being used to collect environmental data and monitor street lighting via different types of sensors mounted on the lamp poles and connected to the Internet [22]. The Barcelona smart city initiative is part of its strategy for transformation from deep economic crisis and infrastructure deficit to becoming a leading metropolis [23]. Its main components are smart districts, living labs, initiatives, e-services, infrastructures and open data. In particular, smart services have been

Smart cities have a wide range of different (potential) applications. A hierarchical classification includes the domains of transport, mobility and logistics, education and culture and public administration and (e-)government [24]. At least some and frequently many or most disabled and older people experience barriers to participation in all these areas. Smart cities offer potential solutions, as long as they are appropriately designed to take account of the accessibility and other requirements of older and disabled people. In some cases, it may be

However, there are advantages in design for all/universal design to make all (smart) facilities and features accessible and usable by as wide a range of the population as possible, regardless of factors such as age, gender, disability, size, culture and class [25]. Design for all should be considered part of standard good design practice [26]. A set of seven design for all principles have been drawn up [27, 28] including the following: the same or equivalent means of use for all users; accommodating a wide range of user preferences and characteristics; minimising negative consequences of user errors or unintended action; and efficient and comfortable use with a minimum of fatigue. Smart Cities for All [29] is an important initiative for the dissemination of universal design in the ICT business environment. It aims to close the digital divide between disabled and older people and the rest of the population. It is trying to develop the strategies necessary to build more inclusive smart cities in partnership with ICT companies. Smart city approaches to overcoming the barriers experienced by disabled and older people will only have their full potential if restrictive assumptions about what facilities are appropriate or of interest to them are avoided. For instance, it has been suggested that smart cities should address the needs of older people across the areas of housing, transport, social participation, social inclusion, health care, communication, community support services, leisure and culture [30]. Unfortunately, employment and learning (education, training and informal learning) are not mentioned, though they are equally important for many disabled and older people. The authors also provide a very brief overview of various systems for older people developed and, in some cases, implemented in the Finnish city of Oulu. They include basic IT skills training at home, online grocery order and home delivery and a pilot for nurses to open locks with mobile handsets. However, considering some of the other applications mentioned

This chapter is part of a small body of work on the applications of smart cities to disabled and older people. The focus seems to be health-related applications, rather than using smart approaches to overcome the barriers to full participation, including in employment, education, travel, leisure and other activities. However, other potentially interesting applications

necessary to target solutions at particular groups of disabled or older people.

used to encourage cooperation, innovation and development.

4 Assistive Technologies in Smart Cities

smart city applications is probably stretching the concept.

Research on smart homes dates back to the 1970s, whereas that on smart cities is considerably more recent. They have the potential to overcome many of the barriers to full participation experienced by disabled and older people. However, this requires consideration of their accessibility and usability requirements, preferably as part of design for all approaches and recognition of the wide range of applications that they might be interested in. To date, there has been very little work on smart cities for disabled and older people or design for all approaches to smart cities.

This book aims to start filling this gap. The five chapters present a number of different approaches to smart city design for older and disabled people. They consider interfaces, design approaches, specific technologies and applications. Haptic interfaces are proposed as a means of overcoming information overload and improved city design based on communication and local clusters is discussed. IoT is presented as the basis of smart city architectures. The applications presented are accessible tourism and health care.
