Solutions from Ukraine: new chatbot allows people with disabilities, elderly, and limited mobility to find accessible locations easily
Photo: "Dostupno!" chatbot
In Ukraine, the "Dostupno!" ["accessible" in Ukrainian – ed.] chatbot has been released to assist people with disabilities, older individuals, and those with limited mobility in locating the nearest free-barrier location.
The press service of the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine reports this.
What is the problem?
According to Tymur Tkachenko, the Deputy Minister for Strategic Industries in Ukraine, only a tiny portion of shelters, less than 10%, are accessible for individuals with disabilities and reduced mobility.
"The situation with shelters in Ukraine is not very encouraging. We have less than 10% of inclusive facilities. The total fund of shelters is about 60,000 facilities, of which only 5,000 are barrier-free," Tkachenko explained.
He stressed that local authorities and the owners of civil protection structures should budget carefully to cover shelter repairs and consider its inclusive aspects.
Tkachenko emphasized that barrier-free accessibility is one of Ukraine's priority directions.
What is the solution?
The "Dostupno!" chatbot has been launched to search for barrier-free locations in Ukraine.
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Photo: Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine
How does it work?
The chatbot is compatible with Viber and Telegram platforms. Here are the links to access it:
- Viber – http://www.viber.com/uadostupnobot;
- Telegram– https://t.me/uadostupnobot.
It contains information on more than 5,000 objects.
According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, for this, the developers processed and added data to the chatbot from various sources, in particular:
- single state open data web portal and city open data portals;
- register of the Center for the Provision of Administrative Services of the "Diia" portal;
- sites and maps of local authorities, lists of shelters;
- Moreover, the NGO "LUN City" has created maps on the accessibility of objects in the urban spaces of Kyiv, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Rivne, Dnipro, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernivtsi.
Additionally, the "Dostupno!" service includes a feature for verifying locations in cities. This is to account for any discrepancies between an establishment's actual accessibility features and its declared parameters. For instance, the ramp may be too steep, or the lift may be out of order.
Users can also independently check the location's availability and leave comments about the service. The chatbot will display the results, which will help improve the database of barrier-free locations.
As a reminder, only 10% of shelters in Ukraine are inclusive.
For reference:
As Rubryka reported, a railway station reconstruction project was presented in Lviv, according to which it will become the first barrier-free station in Ukraine.
