Computer-Assisted Learning Based on Universal Design, Multimodal Presentation and Textual Linkage Leyla Zhuhadar 1 & Bryan Carson 1 & Jerry Daday 1 & Evelyn Thrasher 1 & Olfa Nasraoui 2 Received: 11 October 2015 /Accepted: 8 March 2016 / Published online: 31 March 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract Refining city services is gradually being placed in the hands of the citizens, or, as in the case of IBM’ s initiative, Blet’ s build a planet of smarter cities^ (https:// www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/35573.wss), at their fingertips. By reducing cost and gaining control in building smart transportation management systems, IBM provided a grant to the city of Chicago to reinvigorate Chicago’ s K-12 schools and city college. Similarly, Catherine Bracy (https://www.codeforamerica.org/people/catherine- bracy/) and her team at Code for America are using technology to Bbuild governments for the people and by the people in the twenty-first century.^ It is evident that smart cities should accommodate every citizen, most especially those who may struggle with accessing information through conventional mediums. Specifically, smart cities must ensure that full participation is available to those citizens with communication and learning disabilities and new immigrant populations who experience difficulties under- standing the language of their new home county. The biggest challenge for these J Knowl Econ (2016) 7:373–387 DOI 10.1007/s13132-016-0371-y * Leyla Zhuhadar leyla.zhuhadar@wku.edu Bryan Carson bryan.carson@wku.edu Jerry Daday jerry.daday@wku.edu Evelyn Thrasher evelyn.thrasher@wku.edu Olfa Nasraoui olfa.nasraoui@louisville.edu 1 Department of Information Systems, Gordon Ford College of Business, Western Kentucky University, 1906 College Heights Blvd, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA 2 Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA