Is your school accessible? UNICEF invites schools to evaluate themselves and participate in a project to improve accessibility

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) invites schools in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to assess their accessibility – inclusiveness and architectural accessibility, and analyse the need to improve services for children with disabilities. Based on the completed questionnaires, UNICEF will select schools where it will help improve conditions for children with special education needs.

The idea is being implemented within the framework of the UNICEF project “Together-2. Development of social services, youth participation and quality education.”

The goal is to analyse  problems and improve architectural accessibility of schools in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. It also aims to raise awareness for educators and specialists of Inclusive Resource Centres about what is universal design in education, how to use the International Classification on Functioning and how it improves the quality of inclusive education.

After all, according to the State Statistics Service, as of the beginning of 2021, there are 162,923 children with disabilities under the age of 18 in Ukraine, of which only 74,354 study in full-time secondary schools.

The questionnaire is open for completion until 30 November 2021 by following the link. Some of the questions are:

• about statistics: the number of inclusive classes at school, teacher’s assistants, children with disabilities in individual education and in inclusive classes, children with visual, hearing or musculoskeletal disorders;
• about accessibility: entrances to the territory of the school and ways of movement, external stairs and ramp, internal stairs and ramp;
• about needs analysis: what does your school lack in order to become more accessible to students with special education needs?

To note: there are no right or wrong answers to the questionnaire, but true information will help assess accessibility in schools and develop it in a timely manner. Everything is to help children with disabilities attend school without barriers.

If you have questions about filling in the questionnaire, please contact Ilona Yevtushenko (phone number: 066-627-45-95, e-mail: spilno-2@ukr.net).

To assess the accessibility of an educational institution, the organizers also recommend involving children, including those with disabilities, as well as their parents. Documents that will help when filling in the questionnaire:

1. State Construction Norms (DBN). Inclusiveness of buildings, DBN B.2.2-40: 2018;
2. Teaching aids;
3. Universal design: Facebook page, website.

The project is jointly implemented by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with the financial support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through the German Development Bank (KfW) in partnership with the NGO Donetsk Oblast Organization of the Ukrainian Association of Persons with Disabilities, and Departments of Education and Science of Donetsk and Luhansk State Oblast Administrations.