Accessibility Forum is an event which gathers people interested in expansion of accessibility and in involving people with disabilities into life of local community. The event is the place where you can get acquainted with colleagues’ work, find new partners and share experience. The last Forum that took place in the frames of Accessibility Week is the proof that you don’t have to work in a specialized organization to make the world more comfortable and the society more tolerant.

In the frames of accessibility week we managed to gather unique specialists who in different spheres deal with accessibility issues. This time they talked about a new to Belarus trend – universal design.

Universal design (often inclusive design) refers to broad-spectrum ideas meant to produce buildings, products and environments that are inherently accessible to older people, people without disabilities, and people with disabilities.

The term "universal design" was coined by the architect Ronald L. Mace to describe the concept of designing all products and the built environment to be aesthetic and usable to the greatest extent possible by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life. According to statistical data about 90 percent of the planet’s population need universal design: elderly people, young parents with strollers, manual workers who often have to carry heavy things, temporarily incapacitated and simply tired people. It is a significant fact that disability “dissolves” in “universal” environment: a person doesn’t have to think to which store to go or where to have a lunch. Other barriers are also erased, for example all the information is understandable because it is clearly shown and with the help of recognizable pictograms.

Речь идет в первую очередь о тех людях, которые имеют нарушения слуха, зрения или ограниченную мобильность. Несмотря на значительные финансовые вложения в подготовку к Чемпионату мира по хоккею, ключевые объекты и услуги, которые могут интересовать болельщиков, имеют лишь отдельные элементы доступности, а в целом доступность не носит системный характер. Таковы ключевые выводы мониторинга, который провел Офис по правам людей с инвалидностью перед началом крупного международного спортивного события в Минске.

Специалисты подчеркивают тот факт, что оценка доступности сделана не для всего города, а только для тех объектов и услуг, которые могут понадобиться потенциальным участникам чемпионата.

Accessibility Week is beginning in Belarus. If you share our objectives and goals your events can become a part of our event! Accessibility for all – more opportunities for everyone.

Accessibility Week will be held in Belarus for the second time. The event is dedicated to the issues of all kinds of accessibility for persons with disabilities. Office for the rights of persons with disabilities is the initiator of the event. Accessibility Week is inclusive, informal, unique and open for all event. You can learn more about the goal and objectives here.

Dozens of citizens and many organizations have already signed the Memorandum on joining to voluntary commitments to follow the principles of the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities launched a month ago in the frames of the Office’s for the rights of persons with disabilities campaign “Sign with your heart”.

Public have actively responded to the Office’s call to “sign with heart” the international document – Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Among the signees there are about 100 people and a dozen of different organizations including such as Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Foundation for legal transformation, Association of life-long learning and enlightenment, Belarusian Association of Journalists, Green Network, Ecodom, Agro-eco-culture and others.

People all over Europe celebrate International day of protection of persons’ with disabilities rights. On this day in 1992 persons with disabilities from 17 countries held the first European day of fight for equal rights and against discrimination. Since then similar actions were held every year on May 5 on Europe Day. On this day round tables and wide public discussions of disability issues, demonstrations and actions aimed at attracting attention to the most topical issues for persons with disabilities are held.

On the initiative of ENIL this year’s May 5^th is celebrated under the slogan “Stop Disability Cuts”. The main call by the network of organizations working with persons with disabilities is the call to respect special needs of persons with different types of disabilities and the need to provide these people with such conditions of environment in which they can equally participate in all the spheres of life.

Specialists of the Association of Life-Learning and Enlightenment in cooperation with experts of the Office for the right of persons with disabilities prepared recommendations on inclusion in the sphere of informal education. This work is unique for Belarus, because if the topic of inclusion was discussed in Belarus in the past it was only in the context of traditional education.

If NGOs, educational groups and courses take the prepared advices as the basis it will help people with disabilities to study and to get new knowledge and skills. It will make all the system of informal education more accessible.

These are the results of a new research held by specialists of the Centre for European Transformation and the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities. Employment of persons with disabilities is covered in less than a fourth of all the publications about disability. These results were obtained after the analysis of national mass-media – printed and internet. By the way, the research was held with the participation of such printed mass-media as “AIF”, “Belorusy I Rynok”, “Respublika”, “SB – Belarus Today”, BelGazeta”, “Delo” and many others.

A concept of State program of social integration of persons with disabilities for 2016-2020 is being developed in Belarus. Representatives of the Ministry of Labour and social protection say that the document should provide the complex character of formation and realization of social integration of persons with disabilities to all the spheres: healthcare, education, employment, social protection, information, culture, sport etc. Such conceptual approach will help to create a complex common network of accessibility of the social infrastructure objects taking into account peculiarities of some categories of citizens – disabled and physically weak people.

Representatives of state authorities emphasize the importance of interdepartmental cooperation of bodies and organizations.

We decide to ask this question to people who work in mass-media. Some of them consider that “Paralympic silence” is the Soviet habit, others – that it is the position of TV-channels’ editors. Let’s look into the matter.

Sergey Drozdovskiy, project coordinator of the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities:

- A person who is not familiar with Olympic peculiarities and who bought tickets to the Paralympics is not likely to understand the difference. This year almost all places were occupied, it was difficult to buy tickets. What is happening? People want a show! I heard some people were discussing an interesting thing: “Why wouldn’t they join Paralympics and Olympics?! These two events are both equally interesting!”