First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska took part in the event “When You Can Spread Your Wings,” dedicated to accessibility in communication.
The event marked the launch of the National Barrier-Free Week – a nationwide information campaign promoting accessibility.
“The war has made many important realities of life more visible – and first of all, disability. We all bear the heavy Soviet legacy of stigmatizing disability. The term ‘disabled’ was removed from Ukrainian legislation in 2018. But clearly, a legal change alone is not enough – it will take years to erase these labels and stigmas from our collective consciousness and everyday speech,” the First Lady emphasized.
The event was attended by representatives of the NGO Barrier-Free, UNICEF Ukraine, the Center for Social Change and Behavioral Economics, as well as members of the media, business, architecture, veterans’ community, and mental health support sectors.
The event also featured a presentation of the video lecture “When You Can Communicate Without Barriers,” based on the Barrier-Free Handbook. The lecture was created for media professionals, communicators, opinion leaders, educators, civil servants, activists, and anyone who wants to make their communication more inclusive and respectful.
Organizers and participants encouraged everyone to take part in building a culture of equality, mutual respect, and inclusion.
“How do we communicate respectfully? Here's a useful tip: always start with the person, then describe their experience. That’s why we say: ‘a person with a disability,’ ‘a person released from captivity.’ The person comes first. We are striving to become a country for all people – and in language, that matters, because it sets a course for all of us,” Olena Zelenska said.
The video lecture was created as part of the “Barrier-Free Means When You Can” campaign, implemented by the Ukrainian Government with the support of UNICEF within the First Lady of Ukraine’s “Without Barriers” initiative, in cooperation with the NGO “Barrier-Free,” and with financial support from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German state-owned KfW Development Bank.