Fighting for the right to live, not just to exist

Foreigners coming to Ukraine often wonder whether the country has any handicapped people, as the disabled population can hardly be seen on the streets or in public places. And though Ukrainians are fully aware of the existence of the handicapped population, the thought of what challenges these individuals face on a daily basis doesn’t often cross their mind.

According to European statistics, handicapped people generally constitute from 8-12% of a society’s population. In Ukraine, this adds up to some 3.5 million people. In Feodosiya, a Crimean costal resort, there are more than 7,000 handicapped people. The majority of them experience many difficulties just getting around town. The lack of accessible ramps deprives them of the freedom to travel the city streets and access public facilities, including theaters, universities, libraries and stores. “We want to enjoy our beautiful city, to live, not just to exist,” said Leonid Grabov, a wheelchair-bound activist and a member of the NGO the Rehabilitation Center. “We want to be respected, we want to learn and advance. But all of this is impossible if the demands of disabled people continue to be ignored.”

Aware of the situation, the Rehabilitation Center, based in Feodosiya, decided to take action. First, the center conducted a survey of disabled people and their family members, who identified access to transportation and buildings, employment, medical care, and education as the major barriers to their well-being. The survey was followed by an assessment of Feodosiya governmental and social buildings. The findings were alarming: About 90 percent of buildings had no wheelchair access.

Then, in July 2009, the Rehabilitation Center applied for a grant from the USAID-funded and Pact-administered UNITER Project to implement the Life Without Barriers initiative. The goal of the initiative was to improve access to Feodosiya’s major public buildings, with special attention to hospitals, pharmacies, offices of tax officials and government authorities, transportation services, and shopping centers. In addition, the project also sought to overcome the “human” barrier between healthy and disabled people and between local authorities and residents.

Thanks to the Rehabilitation Center’s involvement, the situation in Feodosiya is slowly changing for the better. Though the city’s physically-impaired people do not yet have access to all the ramps necessary to get around the city, some progress is underway. When the ATB supermarket chain started building its first store in downtown Feodosiya with complete disregard for considerations of access for the disabled, the community rebelled. Requests to equip the big grocery store with the necessary ramps started piling up in the offices of city officials. People protested against the irresponsible architectural bureau of the city council that had granted the construction approval. They raised the issue with their local deputies, as it not only concerned disabled people, but parents with kids and strollers.

The Rehabilitation Center took an active part in mobilizing the community and encouraging people to fight for their rights. The situation was addressed from many sides, including through direct appeals to ATB headquarters and the city’s prosecutor’s office. ATB’s second Feodosiya supermarket had all the necessary ramps and installations in its plans, a major improvement over the first store.

In addition to advocacy activities to improve handicapped access, the Rehabilitation Center strives to bring together government officials, handicapped people and other responsible parties to find solutions and legally anchor practical achievements to challenges confronting the disabled population of Feodosiya. A roundtable organized by the Center in December 2010 helped strengthen civil society’s contacts with government representatives and move the issue of reducing architectural barriers to a position of prominence on the city’s reconstruction agenda.

“I met the deputy of Feodosiya, city councilman Dmitriy Shepetkov [of the Green Party]. Thanks to our cooperation, our city parks will be equipped with ramps,” said Mr. Grabov. After the roundtable, Councilman Shepetkov asked the head of the Rehabilitation Center, Oleg Golubev, to become a deputy head of the accessibility board of the Feodosiya executive committee. Furthermore, the Center’s proposal on eliminating architectural barriers to access for disabled people in the Feodosiya region will be used for the city’s reconstruction plan.