A regular meeting on the "Dialogue between Government and Business" platform on the topic of barrier-free access to tourism brought together more than 70 representatives of structural units of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration, district state administrations, communities, organisations and businesses.
First Deputy Head of the Transcarpathian Regional Military Administration Vasyl Ivancho noted that the purpose of the meeting was to unite efforts in implementing all necessary measures for the development of barrier-free space in the region's tourism sector.
During the meeting, the head of the Department of Tourism and Resorts of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration Marianna Gotra emphasised that barrier-free accessibility is one of the most important challenges for Ukraine today, and therefore tourist facilities, especially health and recreation facilities, should be accessible to everyone, especially people with reduced mobility.
The participants of the meeting were told about the National Strategy for Creating a Barrier-Free Space in Ukraine until 2030 and were introduced to the guidelines for creating an inclusive environment in HoReCa establishments, and the tourist support specialists were emphasised the importance of providing information in formats accessible to people with disabilities (translation into Ukrainian sign language, subtitling, audio commentary, etc.)
Ruslan Protsenko, head of the NGO "Barrier-Free Zakarpattia", spoke about tools for building a barrier-free space. In turn, Taisiia Symochko, coordinator of the All-Ukrainian Mental Health Programme "Are You OK?" and lecturer at the School of Sustainable Green Tourism, spoke about ethics and communication with people with combat experience, Evelina Khymych spoke about barrier-free access to the Enchanted Land National Nature Park, and guide Yurii Zyzych described barrier-free routes and weekend tours for the military.
It should be noted that according to the results of the monitoring conducted by the Ministry of Reconstruction in 2023, Zakarpattia region received an average degree of barrier-free accessibility. In the region, 46% physical environment and services were recognised as partially barrier-free.
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