Cabinet of Ministers releases a “road map” for creating a barrier-free space in Ukraine

The Cabinet of Ministers has released an action plan for 2021-2022 to implement the National Strategy for Barrier-Free Space in Ukraine.

The document is published on the Governmental portal, Rubryka reports.

"To approve the action plan for 2021 and 2022 on implementing the National Strategy for the creation of barrier-free space in Ukraine for the period up to 2030," the resolution reads.

It is also noted that the financing of implementing the action plan is carried out at the expense and within the expenditures provided in the state and local budgets for the year, as well as other sources not prohibited by law.

According to Deputy Minister of Community and Territorial Development, Natalia Kozlovska, 15 ministries, 47 public organizations, and think tanks worked on the creation of this action plan.

"This is a road map for the next year and a half. The action plan defines the sequence of actions to be taken by participants while removing barriers in various spheres of public life. The strategic goal is to make Ukraine comfortable for every citizen by 2030," Kozlovska emphasized.

The action plan includes more than 250 projects. These include physical accessibility of public buildings, accessibility of school education, development of infrastructure accessibility standards, access to the Internet and information, participation in public life, economic accessibility, and so on.

The action plan defines, in particular, the following tasks for line ministries and NGOs:

• to monitor and control the availability of physical facilities and transport on a systematic basis;
• to make information and digital services accessible to all groups of the population (for example, public websites should be adapted for the visually and hearing impaired, and broadcasters should provide subtitling or sign language translation of official messages, films, programs, etc.);
• to provide all groups of the population with equal rights and opportunities for social inclusion and civic participation;
• to create an inclusive educational environment; to provide conditions for employment of all groups of the population.

As reported, the initiator of developing the National Strategy of Accessibility was the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.

The development of the draft action plan for the implementation of the National Strategy for the creation of barrier-free space in Ukraine for 2021-2022 was coordinated by the Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine Oleksii Chernyshov.