A public action “Is the Path to the EU Accessible?” for people with disabilities in the framework of the National Forum on the Rights of People with Disabilities
On December 3rd, 2024, “Fight For Right” OPD and “The League of Strong” held a public action “Is the Path to the EU Accessible?” for people with disabilities on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv, in the framework of the National Forum on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
“On the International Day of People with Disabilities, we want the demands of the community to be met, to be taken seriously, and then in 2025, those people who are responsible for developing policies, for compliance with the law, to come to our campaign, join us and tell us about the success, about the results,” said Yulia Sachuk, head of the Fight For Right NGO.
Yuriy Stepanets, head of the Pishlo-Poihalo NGO, thanked all the defenders for protecting Ukraine and recalled that due to the war, the number of people with disabilities is constantly increasing, and the need for accessibility, respecting the rights of people with disabilities, is extremely urgent.
“Unfortunately, on December 3, there is still a trend of “celebrating” the International Day of People with Disabilities, when people with disabilities are congratulated with something, given something… However, this day is not about that at all. It’s about respecting the rights of people with disabilities. On this day, all of us can pay attention to how accessible our yard is, how respected our rights in a local community, and how adapted the places for people with disabilities at work. It is worth thinking about and evaluating the path that a person with disabilities would overcome from point A to point B, for example, in a wheelchair, or a person with other types of disabilities, and how accessible it is. This is what this day is about,” Yuriy Stepanets noted.
“We want the rights of people with disabilities to be protected and for us to feel confident and comfortable in our state. Our strength is an accessible Ukraine!”, – one of the participants noted.
During the action, the participants demanded respect for the right to information as one of the most important rights. And they noted that currently accessible information remains a dream. After all, there are no necessary visual and audio resources (in particular, subtitles, sign language translation, and information in Braille), as well as insufficiently adapted media and printed materials for people with disabilities, which complicates access to important information and causes discrimination.
The participants of the action also demanded equal, meaningful participation in the process of Ukraine’s integration into the EU, raised the necessity of deinstitutionalization, and employment reforms, and emphasized in their slogans that respecting the rights of people with disabilities is not a formality, but a real need: “Step by step, we must move towards EU standards”, “Barrier-free is not for show!”, “Accessibility as a new social norm!”, “Barrier-free is for everyone!”.
It is important to note that the public action initiated by Fight For Right on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which united people with disabilities, and activists for the rights of people with disabilities from all over Ukraine, was held for the fourth time.
The National Forum on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was organised by The League of the Strong and the OPD Fight For Right 🇺🇦 with @UN Women Ukraine, the International Renaissance Foundation, the EU Delegation to Ukraine, and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES Ukraine), National Democratic Institute (NDI), MacArthur Foundation, New Democracy Fund, Kvinna till Kvinna and with funding from the Women’s Peace & Humanitarian Fund, USAID – US Agency for International Development and British aid from the UK Government. The views expressed during the event are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the partners or donors.
