Audit in Ukraine finds only 20% of barrier-free buildings

The Ministry of Development of Ukraine, based on the results of monitoring and assessing the degree of barrier-freeness of physical environment facilities and services for people with disabilities, reports that among the 93 thousand facilities that passed the barrier-freeness assessment by the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine in 2024, only 20% are accessible to people with disabilities.

The Ministry of Development of Ukraine wrote about this on Facebook.

"According to the results of this year [2024 – ed.], 93 thousand facilities were inspected, which is a significant increase compared to last year, when about 54 thousand were inspected.

The overall results of the monitoring show that 20% of facilities are barrier-free," the report says.

It is noted that in 2024, for the first time, in addition to buildings and structures, the following were included for inspection:

• streets,
• public transport stops,
• improvement facilities.

According to the monitoring results, the best barrier-free indicator was found among:

• healthcare facilities (43% barrier-free),
• administrative service centers (41%),
• banks (36%).

In terms of determining the accessibility of streets, roads, and public facilities, 22% of the total number of surveyed facilities are barrier-free, of which the highest indicators are:

• public transport stops (28%),
• streets leading to hospitals (25%).

Regarding public facilities and pedestrian paths on central streets, 22% and 16% are barrier-free, respectively.

The regions with the highest degree of barrier-free access are Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Rivne, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv.

Following them, the degree of barrier-free access is demonstrated by the corresponding indicators of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Volyn, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Sumy regions and the city of Kyiv.

For reference:

As reported, the National Strategy for Creating a Barrier-Free Space by 2030 was initiated by First Lady Olena Zelenska and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2021. The strategy aims to create conditions that help every person, regardless of gender, age, origin, health status, and social status, fully exercise their rights and freedoms.

Ukraine plans to enhance its system to monitor the effectiveness of accessibility and inclusion measures. Last year's data shows that only 22% of the 54,000 surveyed sites were barrier-free. Additionally, there's an intention to strengthen oversight of new building codes, which cover a broad scope of accessibility standards.