We are starting to prepare for “Accessibility Week – 2015” the main events of which are planned for April. We offer, together with the participants of the last Accessibility Week, to recollect what had been done, what useful things we shared during the last event and what topics should be covered better. If you have something to say and want to join the preparation or have any ideas which hwill make the Week more qualitative write to our email info@disright.org.
Tatiana Zhirnosek has been working as a PR specialist of “Positive Movement” already for several years. She knows from the first hands what discrimination is (some of the target groups are HIV positive people and people who fall under the term “groups of risk”) and is looking for effective methods of solving civil society issues and is interested in promoting accessibility in her own NGO.
Tatiana shared her vision of the last Accessibility Week:
“For me the Accessibility Week is a kind of a festival of ideas, recommendations, experience and practices of how to make our environment and the whole country accessible for everyone in spite of their peculiarities. I think that an event that has become a traditional one is very useful for different people: journalists, officials, civic activists and those whose problems are usually discussed.
It seemed to me that all Accessibility Weeks used the slogan: “Nothing for us without us”. For me, as for a person who also works in the NGO, it is very important, because I understand that it is very important to take into account the real needs of target groups. People with disabilities in spite of our far from ideal barrier-free environment (although I understand that the organizers tried to choose the most suitable for holding the activities places) took rather active participation in discussions and had the possibility to share their own experience, their thoughts, to join other activities and even somehow influence the whole process. Together we discussed not “something for someone” but things our country really needs today.
I think that the training “How to organize an accessible event” was the most useful event. I learned a lot of new things: a lot depends even from my own activities. A person can make the environment more accessible even using his own possibilities because accessibility is not only about curbs and ramps. Accessibility starts from questionnaires we prepare creating a new group for a seminar, from ads about vacancies we send to potential candidates, from public transport, height of counters… I can continue this list. This is our environment we are facing every day. Sometimes we don’t even understand that we take as granted something that is uncomfortable for us. And in this case it is not important what special needs you have: visual impairments or you are a vegetarian, move in a wheelchair, have an allergy, wear glasses or you are a short person… Every person to this or that degree has some peculiarities and needs that is why we have to move to universalism of the environment and everybody will feel comfortable in this case.
I think that the organizers of the Accessibility Week found rather successful format for promoting this rather problematic topic. Besides, people have a possibility to get acquainted, start doing something but not only to complain. We gather together and start thinking and are looking for new approaches. Of course people understand that it is not possible to change everything in one day but they continue to work in this sphere and it is the greatest achievement of the event.
