“Employment of people with disabilities is one of the priority directions of creating a barrier-free space in the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, — Anton Gerashchenko
People with musculoskeletal disorders will be able to work in the field of receiving calls from citizens, in particular, among dispatchers of emergency services. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko during the first meeting of the Barrier-Free Council chaired by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmyhal with the participation of First Lady Elena Zelenska, the leadership of the ministries and representatives of the public.
Within the framework of the event, the initiatives of each of the ministries on the implementation of the National Strategy for creating a barrier-free space in Ukraine for 2021-2022 were presented.
“Barrierlessness is becoming the new social norm. The changes initiated by the Barrier-Free Council do not only concern people who are forced to face various barriers in their lives. These changes are primarily about what kind of country we aspire to be. A country where everyone has equal rights and opportunities. A country without barriers!” said First Lady Elena Zelenska.
“By working together, we must develop a clear, step-by-step action plan, and define for each direction of barrier-free priority tasks that need to be implemented in the first place. Concrete ways of overcoming all barriers that exist in Ukraine will be formed,” said Denis Shmyhal.
“Currently, we are dealing with the possibility of employment of people with musculoskeletal disorders. After all, the social inclusion of a person with a disability is directly related to the possibility of employment, the ability to provide for oneself materially, to engage in socially useful activities. In the police there is a lot of work related to the processing of appeals from citizens who come to the emergency services numbers 102 — 112. This important work can be performed by people with disabilities,” said Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko.
Anton Gerashchenko also said that the following measures to ensure barrier-free access are planned for the next two years of the Ministry of Internal Affairs:
conducting an audit of the accessibility of office buildings and police departments;
optimization and digitization of emergency services, trust phones and other services, taking into account the communication needs and capabilities of persons with disabilities, so that they can receive administrative and police services without hindrance;
organization of training programs for representatives of the law enforcement system on barrierlessness;
collection and analysis of data on women and girls with disabilities who have suffered from gender-based violence, etc.
“Thank you that the state hears us at these stages. But I want to note that no strategy has been successful in these matters because there has not been proper attention to monitoring, monitoring and the appropriate gradual and periodic review of the indicators that we are looking for. Therefore, it is very important that there be both administrative and criminal responsibility for the fact that these issues are ignored,” said Vitaliy Pcholkin, Chairman of the Board of the All-Ukrainian Association of Persons with Disabilities “Active Rehabilitation Group”.
At the next meeting of the Barrier Free Council in July, ministries are to present a draft Action Plan with proposals and a defined financial part. Also at the meeting should be approved indicators of the effectiveness of the implementation of the Action Plan.
For reference:
The development of the draft Action Plan for the implementation of the National Strategy for the creation of barrier-free space in Ukraine for 2021-2022 is coordinated by the Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov.
The expert consortium, which includes the Centre for Economic Recovery, ISAR Unity and NGO “Barriernost”, provides analytical and technical support to the interdepartmental working group under the Cabinet of Ministers to develop the Action Plan for the implementation of the National Barrierlessness Strategy.
The National Strategy for the creation of barrier-free space in Ukraine was developed on the initiative of First Lady Elena Zelenskaya and in implementation of the Decree of the President of Ukraine of December 3, 2020 “On Ensuring the Creation of Barrier-Free Space in Ukraine”.
