Using real examples, the participants of the event considered the most common barriers faced by people with limited mobility, shared their personal observations, and analyzed foreign experience in providing architectural accessibility.
On April 6 and 7, a seminar “Creating a barrier-free space” was held in Lviv. Physical accessibility of architectural objects” for authorized bodies of urban planning and architecture of territorial communities of Lviv region.
It was organized by the Department of Architecture and Urban Development of Lviv Oblast with the support of the USAID “HOVERLA” Project.
“Previously, inclusiveness was a formality and, at best, was reduced to the banal arrangement of a ramp. Now these ideas are changing rapidly and many people already know that anyone can become a person with limited mobility – it is not just about people with disabilities. This risk increases especially in the conditions of a full-scale war, and thus comes the realization that everyone needs inclusiveness. We can already see that the public demand for accessible physical spaces is forming. It can be satisfied by the architectural community, which directly depends on what Ukrainian cities will be like in the near future. Therefore, the goal of our seminar is to think about ensuring equal opportunities for every person,” said Olena Vasylko, director of the Department of Architecture.
The speakers of the event were specialized experts, specialists in barrier-free issues, as well as well-known architects. In particular, the representatives of the Superhumans project – an ultra-modern rehabilitation center for war victims – are chief architect Marko Savytskyi and barrier-free consultant Ulyana Pcholkina.
“Our task, and the task of rehabilitation in general, is to return a person to work. To do this, we have to teach her to get out of bed, to put on a prosthesis, so that the prosthesis is selected correctly, so that the person is as functional as possible with his impairments, so that the person can leave his home. For this, we still need to work a lot as a community, as a society… So that we do not build new barriers for people, because the number of people with disabilities in Ukraine, unfortunately, increases many times every day. A person should be able to go out, walk or drive through accessible streets, and get to the workplace, which should also be adapted,” explained Ulyana Pcholkina.
In addition, within the scope of the event, its participants also had the opportunity, together with the national coordinator of the “Barrier-Free Ukraine” program of the National Assembly of People with Disabilities of Ukraine, Yaroslav Hrybalskyi, to inspect the territory of the building where the seminar was held.