Taras Khomitsky is a social activist. He is a wheelchair user, so he understands from his own experience how important accessibility is. Taras has been involved in public activities for 5 years. His initiatives are aimed at making the city of Ternopil comfortable for everyone. What can one person with like-minded people change and whether the Concept of Creating an Accessible Environment for People with Disabilities and Other Low-Mobility Groups, recently adopted by the City Council, can improve the situation, is discussed in the article.
“In 2018, I became interested in accessibility issues. After seeing how other activists use such a tool as petitions, I decided to write a petition to lower the sidewalks on the way to the park on Solomiya Krushelnytska Street. The petition received the required number of votes in less than a day. So I began to take an interest in accessibility standards to see if the lowering of the sidewalks would be done properly. It was then that the new state building standards for accessibility came into force, but unfortunately, the lowering of the sidewalks was done according to the old standards, not flush with the road. This made me even more interested in the topic,” says Taras.
Therefore, Taras subsequently began inspecting various important facilities in the city for accessibility, including participating in the city testing by Dostupno.UA and other initiatives. For example, in 2021, Taras visited and checked the accessibility of several museums in the Ternopil region. Out of 20 museums, he was able to get into only two on his own.
Initially, they acted as the “Barrier-Free Ternopil” initiative, and in 2022, to get more tools for change, Taras and like-minded people officially registered a public organisation. This year, the activist joined the Public Group at the City Council, which is supposed to oversee the ongoing work of the housing and communal services.
“When I started working in the group, I thought the main problem was the poor infrastructure of the city – sidewalks, high curbs, bus stops. But later, after talking more with other people who use wheelchairs, I came to the conclusion that the main problem is the accessibility of public buildings. There are places where it is possible to get to by public transport, but getting inside the building is a problem. Unfortunately, we have very few accessible buildings, and the saddest thing is that this applies to social and medical institutions,” explains Taras.
To determine the level of the problem, the public activist inquired about the results of the annual accessibility monitoring that local governments must conduct in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers’ Resolution. It turned out that almost 88% of buildings in Ternopil are inaccessible to people with disabilities. A total of 500 facilities were inspected during the monitoring. Together with his colleague from the working group, Petro Panovyk, Taras also reflected the scale of the problem by creating a Barrier Map – https://bit.ly/40f0WEB.
At the end of 2023, work began in Ternopil to lower the areas in front of pedestrian crossings at 15 locations.
“Those sidewalks where the crossings were lowered with our participation were done well, except for minor flaws. At other sites, unfortunately, the work is done less accurately. But there is still a positive trend. The quality of work depends on the contractor’s skills and motivation. Unfortunately, the city’s control is not always sufficient, and initiatives like ours cannot always cover all the facilities,” says Taras.
Another important result achieved in 2023 was the adoption of the Concept for Creating an Accessible Environment for Persons with Disabilities and Other People with Limited Mobility. The City Council also approved the Action Plan for the implementation of the Concept.
“Back in 2021, we conducted an advocacy campaign for the adoption of the Accessibility Strategy in the Ternopil community. At that time, we also prepared a number of recommendations based on the results of monitoring and an action plan. The adopted Concept does not equal the Strategy. However, it is worth noting that the authorities partially heed the advice. Among the points of the Concept, I saw ideas and suggestions that I offered during monitoring and research of the environment and heard from active citizens. The document contains some shortcomings, but we hope they will be eliminated, and the Concept will become an effective tool for change,” says Taras.
The Concept envisages a number of measures aimed at removing physical, informational, social, economic, educational and digital barriers. In particular, from now on, all construction in the Ternopil community must comply with building regulations, including those on inclusiveness of buildings and structures. Also, the main entrances to the buildings of the Ternopil City Territorial Community will be adapted for use by people with disabilities.
Over the next three years, the number of public transport that is comfortable for people with disabilities will be increased gradually. And in the existing transport, they plan to introduce the practice of announcing stops and duplicating their names on the information board. According to Taras, these are very important points that are taken into account in the Concept and Action Plan.
“Another valuable opportunity was a workshop on the basics of barrier-free accessibility for representatives of local self-government bodies and civil society activists, organised by the League of the Strong. During the event, we also discussed proposals to the Concept and were able to directly voice them to the authorities who attended the event,” says Taras.
However, not all the initiatives proposed by the public were taken into account, the civil society activist says.
“We collected proposals by filling in a Google form or by contacting us. We submitted a lot of proposals. However, unfortunately, the public was able to find out which proposals were taken into account in the Concept and Action Plan only after the city council session. As a result, after a month of collection, only a few suggestions were taken into account before the session itself.Another problem is that the Concept is very much at odds with the adopted regional and national ones. The Concept and Action Plan in Ternopil were adopted until 2026. At the same time, the Action Plan at the regional and national level is adopted annually with clear quantitative indicators. This makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of its implementation. It means that we can postpone the removal of some barriers until 2026, and in the near future we can build 5 ramps or 0. And this will be fine, because the strategy is until 2026, and they will promise to do more,” says Taras.
However, in general, the Concept and Plan can help make Ternopil comfortable for everyone. Of course, provided that the declared plans are put into practice.
“Among the positive aspects, it is also important to note the arrangement of elements of unimpeded access to the homes of people with disabilities, the arrangement of accessible bathrooms in hospitals and public places, the sounding of traffic lights, ensuring the accessibility of transport services, ensuring the protection and safety of people with disabilities, ensuring the collection and dissemination of reliable information on the accessibility of facilities, and raising the level of awareness of officials,” Taras concludes.
Together with like-minded people from the organisation “Barrier-Free Ternopil”, the civil activist plans to monitor the implementation of the Concept of Accessibility and make proposals for changes to the Concept and Action Plan for consideration by the deputy commission on humanitarian issues. Taras recommends that Ternopil residents, especially those with reduced mobility, should read the adopted documents and actively monitor their implementation. After all, as he proves by his own example, everyone who has the will can make changes.