Barrier-free accessibility should become a new social norm in Ukraine. This is an ambitious goal that Ukraine wants to achieve with the help of the National Strategy for Creating a Barrier-Free Space until 2030. We asked Daria Sydorenko, Executive Director of the League of the Strong, to tell us more about what the Strategy envisages and how it will be implemented in practice.
“The goal of the Strategy is to create an unhindered environment for all groups of the population, to ensure equal opportunities for everyone to exercise their rights and receive services on an equal footing with others by integrating physical, informational, digital, social and civil, economic and educational barriers into all areas of public policy. Our organization is interested in the Strategy primarily because it is about positive changes for people with disabilities, but as we can see from the goal, its implementation will make life easier for other groups as well,” – explains Daria Sydorenko.
The Strategy identifies six main areas of barrier-free accessibility: physical, information, digital, social and civic, educational, and economic. Each of them includes a vision, an analysis of the current state and identification of key problems, strategic goals, tasks aimed at achieving them, target indicators and expected results in the area. In the near future, the Action Plan for the next two years to implement the strategy will also be adopted. For the most effective result, the League also plans to join the implementation of the Plan’s measures.
“At the end of the document, it is stated that the implementation of the Strategy is ensured by joint actions of state authorities, local governments, civil society organizations, and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights. It also states that it is being implemented with the support of international organizations – the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union and other international organizations. We, as representatives of civil society, are ready for consultations, studying the experience of other countries, and joint projects that will contribute to the implementation of the Strategy. Therefore, we are always open to communication with representatives of other countries. We are also ready to become a kind of bridge between foreign partners and the Ukrainian government, because we all have the same goal – a decent life for every person with a disability, even in times of war.
If you are ready to join the creation of a barrier-free environment in Ukraine, please fill out the form and we will be in touch: https://forms.gle/14zRcL4UNav431TW8