Accessibility is about the absence of restrictions. The needs of every person, including people with disabilities, as well as groups with limited mobility, such as the elderly, pregnant women, and parents with children, must be taken into account. Universal design, or the reasonable adaptation of an object or service, is regulated by state building codes (hereinafter referred to as SBC – ed.). This includes such facilities as ramps, special lifts, tactile floor tiles, Braille information signs, audio signs, sign language, etc.
According to the 2022 accessibility rating of Ukrainian cities by the Ministry of Community, Territorial and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk region received 175 points out of a possible 300 in terms of barrier-free physical environment and services for people with disabilities, and is a region with an average degree of accessibility.
Journalists of the HLUZD media with the support of The League of the Strong decided to find out what the situation is in the city today; so, together with Volodymyr Onufryk, a representative of the NGO Slid, which unites families of people with disabilities, who uses a wheelchair, we investigated the extent to which Ivano-Frankivsk is barrier-free for people who use a wheelchair.
Reaching out to government agencies
We are in the very centre of the city. We start our exploratory walk from the Administrative Services Centre, where, according to the man, one of the best ramps in the city is equipped. It has a rubberised surface, so it’s easy to use because it’s not slippery. The only comment Volodymyr has is about the handrails. He says they should be longer than the ramp.
“The mesh and iron cover are also fine. It depends on whether there are handrails and a suitable slope. According to the DBN, a ramp can have an angle of no more than 8 degrees. If it was more than 10-12, I wouldn’t have been able to get on at all,” says Volodymyr.
As for the handrails, they partially comply with the DBN: the lower one is 70 cm high, the upper one is 90 cm high. Volodymyr tells us that their NGO monitors such structures, and there have been cases where the handrails have been installed higher, so people have to reach them.
We also visit the toilet in the ASC. There is a movable mirror that the visitor can adjust to suit himself, as well as a folding handrail.
There is a ramp at the entrance to the Taxpayer Service Centre, although the angle of the structure itself is 13 degrees.
“When it reaches 10, I can barely get up. Unless it’s a short one. But it’s inaccessible inside because of the stairs. They installed folding rails, but they were not very good, because the wheels did not fit,” Volodymyr comments.
There is a ramp at the entrance to the Department of Communal Resources and the Department of Social Policy, but the doors themselves are too narrow for a wheelchair to pass through. To get to them, you have to go over the curbs.
Near the regional and city councils, the ramp is slippery, but it is possible to climb it.
Did the “stometrivka” fail the test? (stometrivka is a popular name for the main street in the city)
Moving on. The city dental clinic was the next place we visited. The ramp near the clinic has the required 8-degree incline and is tiled, so it can be slippery due to weather conditions. Volodymyr can easily drive up it, but says that if it was snowing, it would be impossible.
For example, the ramp at the entrance to the drama theatre has a heating system, so its surface is always dry and not slippery. According to Volodymyr, the clinic also has a toilet, but it is in poor condition and needs to be repaired. There is a call button near the door.
Next, we pass a bank, which Volodymyr cannot enter. There is a call button near the door.
“I still have to give the employee my passport or tell them my PIN to withdraw money. This is also wrong. Recently, there was a similar situation when a parcel was transferred to an inaccessible Meest branch. No one can come out, they say give me your phone number to bring the parcel,” the man says.
One of the city’s bookstores, located on the main street, is on the third floor and does not have a lift. The other ones we passed on the way were also impossible to enter due to the lack of a ramp or buttons.
Volodymyr says that he can’t get into most of the shops on the main street without help because of thresholds (the permitted height of which is up to 2 cm) and steps. Even special buttons don’t help.
“In 95% of cases, these buttons do not work. I have never come across one that works. Once I tried to use it to get to a pharmacy. I tried for about five minutes and no one came out. A man walking by asked if I should call someone, and only then did they come out to me. But it’s inconvenient. It’s like if you went to the grocery store to buy groceries and they would bring you everything in a bag, and you don’t even know if they put fresh food in it. That’s why it’s best to be able to stop by,” the man says.
As for the pharmacies, among all the ones we came across in the centre, there were few that were properly equipped. We saw pharmacies with steep stairs, a high threshold, and a handrail without a ramp leading to the stairs. There was a lift near one of the pharmacies. At first, we looked for some instructions and buttons on how to use it, but a moment later we discovered that they were covered by the pharmacy’s advertising banner.
There is an entrance with a ramp on the main street only to the Delikacia coffee shop. The angle of ascent is 5 degrees. But you have to be careful when driving on it, because it has no handrails. The neighboring establishment does not have a ramp.
“There are stairs everywhere, but we can’t put a ramp everywhere. Where there are high stairs, we can only place a lifting platform, because the ramp would be too big,” says Volodymyr.
He adds that the centre can still easily access the Urban Space, which also has an accessible toilet. As for public toilets, he can only use the modular ones that are located near the lake, on the Valy, and in the city centre.
It is not easy to get to churches either. In the central part of Frankivsk, there is a ramp near the cathedral. Volodymyr says he goes to a church near the bus station on Pasichna Street. Although the ramp there is not complete, it is possible to use it.
“Killer ramps”
Volodymyr shares that the biggest problem for people with disabilities in Ivano-Frankivsk is getting out of the house, as most buildings are not equipped for this.
“The city council installed a lift in my house. However, I had to wait for more than six years. But now I can leave the house and get home by myself. At first, I had to apply to Martsinkiv. Then I collected a lot of documents. About a year later, they came to install folding rails from the wall. There was such an angle that you could kill yourself. The stairs were narrow, and it was difficult for everyone to get out because of those rails. They were removed, and then nothing was done for a year. When the law on accessibility came out, we wrote to the city council again, and then the problem was finally solved. The lift then cost the city seven thousand euros,” the man says.
The next obstacle is curbs. In many places, Volodymyr says, he has to drive around them on the road. He says that if you go to the city centre on your own, there is no route where you don’t have to go around them.
Almost all of Elektroavtotrans’ public transport is accessible. “In general, drivers help everywhere, they fold down the ramp, there is room for a wheelchair.”
Volodymyr adds that it is only harder with accordion trolleybuses, and he cannot use private yellow Bohdan buses at all.
Volodymyr calls ramps with a large angle of inclination or those that rest against a wall “killer ramps”. We see a dozen of them in an hour and a half in the city. The biggest angle we came across was 24 degrees. Such a ramp is installed at the entrance to Bastion.
Volodymyr calls Arsen, Epicentr and Velez shopping centres accessible. The renovated Veles has a lift leading inside. There are toilets on every floor, and, according to the man, the cinema has free admission.
The entrance to the cinema in the city centre has a high step, but then there are stairs leading inside. The other entrance has stairs and no ramp. The Philharmonic has a separate equipped entrance.
“If I want to, I can go everywhere. I don’t have to go in myself, but if I really want to, I can ask people to take me. I’d like to go to the observation deck of the town hall, but there are stairs up there,” says Volodymyr.
Libraries in the city do not have accessible entrances. Most of them have old doors where a wheelchair cannot get through.
Summing up, Volodymyr says that Ivano-Frankivsk can be called partially accessible, and he gives it a score of 5 on a ten-point scale. He adds that this is only his experience, as people with other diagnoses or disabilities may have different needs.
Making the city accessible to people with disabilities is possible. This is the belief of experts from The League of the Strong, a civil society organisation that protects the rights of people with disabilities. They have recently developed a checklist for implementing accessibility called the Accessibility Community. It contains practical recommendations for ensuring accessibility of transport, administrative services, education, and other important areas. In general, accessibility of services and accessibility in communities are the two main priorities set by the Accessibility Council at the national level for this year.