Dostupno.UA

Dostupno.UA (Ukrainian: Доступно.UA) is a Ukrainian non-governmental organization and digital accessibility platform founded in December 2015 by Dmytro Shchebetyuk and Marho Hontar. It began as a grassroots initiative to check whether cafés, restaurants and public spaces in Kyiv were physically accessible to people with limited mobility, and grew into a nationwide accessibility mapping project covering 23 Ukrainian cities. The organization's mission is threefold: to normalize how society perceives people with disabilities, to promote the trend of architectural accessibility in Ukraine, and to motivate people to live active lives. The project started when two friends tried to have coffee at a venue in central Kyiv that had three steps at the entrance. Rather than accept the barrier, Dmytro Shchebetyuk entered the venue, asked for the complaint book and proposed that the owner make the space accessible for people with limited mobility. That experience inspired the idea of systematically checking venues for accessibility. The team's stated goal is to break a vicious circle: venue owners say "such people don't come to us, so we do nothing," while wheelchair users avoid those venues because they are inaccessible. What began as spot checks evolved into an accessibility map of Ukrainian cities, a Facebook page, a website and a video blog. The team expanded with a Lviv coordinator, Yuliia Karbunarova, and Natalia Pavlenko, who now manages projects together with Dmytro Shchebetyuk. In autumn 2017 the initiative received official status as a civic organization. In March 2020 Dostupno.UA released the Dostupno mobile app for Android and iOS, which helps people with limited mobility find convenient locations and plan routes to them. The creation of the app and map was supported by the British Embassy in Ukraine. The map now covers 23 Ukrainian cities and includes several categories of locations: entertainment and business venues such as cafés, restaurants, cinemas, banks and pharmacies; administrative buildings such as city councils, regional state administrations, courts and administrative service centers; and public spaces such as museums, parks and libraries. Dostupno.UA also runs a video blog that has produced projects including a top-10 Kyiv museums series, videos for Eurovision 2017 about Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv, a beauty blog, a food blog, DostupnoEkstrym, DostupnoTur, DostupnoChallenge and the School of Accessibility. Since 2017 the organization has cooperated with Toronto Television. Dmytro Shchebetyuk joined the second season of the program #@)₴?$0 with Michael Shchur as the host of the "Inclusion" segment and helped develop story ideas with the team; in later seasons he appeared as a guest host. Dostupno.UA videos have also had a significant impact on preserving the single pedestrian crossing across Khreshchatyk and on installing a regulated crossing across Pushkinska Street in Kyiv. The organization maintains an objectively positive tone in covering accessibility in the country and in telling stories about the lives of people with disabilities.

Dostupno.UA was founded in December 2015 by Dmytro Shchebetyuk and Marho Hontar. The organization's activity began when two friends decided to have coffee at a venue in central Kyiv. There were three steps at the entrance. Dmytro decided that inaccessible infrastructure should not limit him and entered the venue. Inside, he asked for the complaint book and approached the owner with a proposal to make the venue accessible for people with limited mobility. That is how the idea of checking venues for accessibility was born. The team's goal was to break a vicious circle: owners of venues and public spaces do not create inclusive space because "such people don't come to us, so we do nothing," while wheelchair users do not visit such locations because they are inaccessible. Over time, the organization decided to expand the topics it worked on. Spot checks turned into an accessibility map of Ukrainian cities, and a Facebook page, website and video blog appeared. Two more people joined the team: Lviv coordinator Yuliia Karbunarova and Natalia Pavlenko. Currently Natalia, together with Dmytro Shchebetyuk, manages the organization's projects. They started their activity as an initiative and in autumn 2017 received the status of a civic organization. From its founding, Dostupno.UA chose an objectively positive tone in covering the accessibility situation in the country and in telling stories about the lives of people with disabilities. The organization works on three main fronts. First, normalizing the perception of people with disabilities: society often swings between two opposite stereotypes — heroization and victimization. People with disabilities are given heroic traits merely for living ordinary lives after injury: going to work, walking, having a family. In this perception, a person with a disability equals a hero. Similarly, they are given victim traits because of their disability, a perception formed in Soviet times through the stereotype that these people live only on state social assistance, sit at home, have no active life and their life is pure suffering, so they deserve pity. Both perceptions distort the image of a person. Dostupno.UA fights these stereotypes and insists that people should not be perceived as heroes or victims merely because of their disability; instead, the person comes first and disability is a background factor. Second, promoting the trend of accessibility: a common stereotype is that architectural accessibility is needed only by people with disabilities. However, every person at some point in their life experiences difficulty moving independently and belongs to groups with limited mobility: elderly people, pregnant women, people with baby strollers and children under 7, people with disabilities or temporary health impairments, even people traveling with heavy suitcases or after a hard day's work. Therefore all people need accessible and convenient infrastructure. Third, calling for an active life: one reason people with disabilities remain "invisible" to the rest of society is the inaccessibility of urban space. There is a vicious circle between venue owners and these people: the former claim such people do not visit their venues, so there is no need to equip them; the latter argue they do not go to such venues because they are inaccessible. Dostupno.UA tries to break this circle by visiting and entering all locations, even if outside help is needed, to show that people with disabilities go to all locations. They call on everyone to do this: go out, visit locations, and thus create demand for infrastructure convenient for all. The organization also constantly tells about the travels of Dmytro Shchebetyuk and other people with disabilities. For example, two hitchhiking trips Dmytro took in 2017 and 2019: across Ukraine and Belarus, and DostupnoEurotour, during which they visited 10 European countries in a month. The purpose of these trips is to show that all people can travel a lot regardless of budget and level of mobility, and to call on all people, not only people with disabilities, to do so. Over time, checks of individual locations turned into a map of accessibility of Ukrainian cities. In March 2020 they released the Dostupno mobile app for Android and iOS platforms. The app helps people from groups with limited mobility find a convenient location and plan a route to it: wheelchair users, people with small children and baby strollers, and others. The creation of the app and map was supported by the British Embassy in Ukraine. Currently the map covers 23 Ukrainian cities and includes several types of locations: entertainment and business locations such as cafés, restaurants, cinemas, banks, pharmacies; administrative ones such as city councils, regional state administrations, courts, administrative service centers; and public spaces such as museums, parks, libraries. The video blog is one of Dostupno.UA's main tools. During the organization's activity, video projects have included: top-10 museums of Kyiv, a series of videos for Eurovision 2017 about Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv, a beauty blog, Smachno Blog, DostupnoEkstrym, DostupnoTur, DostupnoChallenge and the School of Accessibility. Since 2017 they have cooperated with Toronto Television. Dmytro Shchebetyuk joined the second season of the program #@)₴?$0 with Michael Shchur as the host of the "Inclusion" segment and together with the team developed ideas for stories. In subsequent seasons he appears as a guest host of the program. Also, Dostupno.UA videos had a significant impact on preserving the single pedestrian crossing across Khreshchatyk and on installing a regulated crossing across Pushkinska Street in Kyiv.

• Dostupno.UA founded by Dmytro Shchebetyuk and Marho Hontar in Ukraine

• Received status of civic organization in autumn

• Began cooperation with Toronto Television; Dmytro Shchebetyuk hosted the Inclusion segment on #@)₴?$0

• Dmytro Shchebetyuk hitchhiked across Ukraine and Belarus

• DostupnoEurotour: visited 10 European countries in one month

• Released Dostupno mobile app for Android and iOS

A civic-tech and advocacy platform promoting architectural accessibility and normalizing the perception of people with disabilities in Ukraine.

• Dostupno mobile app

  App for Android and iOS that helps people with limited mobility find convenient locations and plan routes to them.

• Accessibility map of Ukrainian cities

  Map covering 23 Ukrainian cities with several types of locations: entertainment and business, administrative, and public spaces.

• Video blog projects

  Includes top-10 museums of Kyiv, Eurovision 2017 videos, beauty blog, Smachno Blog, DostupnoEkstrym, DostupnoTur, DostupnoChallenge and School of Accessibility.

1. 1Dostupno.UA on Wikidatawikidata.org
2. 2Доступно.UA on Ukrainian Wikipediauk.wikipedia.org