Journalistic Audit of a Barrier-Free Environment

Context

Accessibility of the urban environment is one of the key conditions for realizing the rights of people with disabilities and other groups with reduced mobility, including wheelchair users, parents with strollers, and older people. At the same time, in many Ukrainian cities, accessibility remains fragmented or merely declarative, and the actual state of infrastructure often does not meet the declared standards.

In this context, local media can play the role of public oversight, not only informing audiences about the problem but also initiating concrete changes through community engagement and dialogue with local authorities.

What Was Done

Journalists from the municipal enterprise Uman Television Company conducted their own journalistic audit of one district of the city from the perspective of accessibility.

As part of the initiative, they:

• assessed the accessibility of streets and infrastructure for wheelchair users and parents with strollers;
• documented problematic areas that make movement difficult for people with reduced mobility;
• involved local residents and people with disabilities in discussing the findings.

The goal of the material was not only to document the problem but also to draw attention to real barriers in the urban environment and encourage authorities to implement practical solutions.

As Andrii Vdovychenko, Director of Uman Television Company, noted:

“The project became highly visible because journalists did not simply show the problems—they involved people with disabilities and parents with strollers in the discussion. Thanks to this public attention, local authorities began lowering curbs in the most problematic areas, while residents gained an opportunity to publicly identify street sections that required improvement. The audience actively supported the initiative: in the comments, people shared their observations, noted positive changes, and suggested specific locations for improvement. In this way, Uman Television Company promotes inclusive practices and fosters a culture of shared responsibility for creating a barrier-free urban environment.”

How It Was Implemented

The journalistic team:

• inspected streets and infrastructure facilities from the perspective of users for whom barriers are a daily reality;
• involved community residents and representatives of groups with reduced mobility in identifying problematic zones;
• combined critical analysis with examples of positive changes that had already taken place or could realistically be implemented.

This approach helped create an open public discussion about accessibility as a shared responsibility of the community, local authorities, and municipal services.

Impact

The material produced practical results at the community level:

• local authorities began installing lowered curbs in the most problematic locations;
• residents received a public channel for reporting areas that required changes;
• audiences actively participated in the discussion by sharing observations, noting positive developments, and proposing specific locations for accessibility improvements.

The initiative demonstrated that journalistic reporting can become a tool for real change in the urban environment rather than merely a record of existing problems.

What Other Media Can Learn From This

• Conduct local journalistic accessibility audits based on the real experiences of people with reduced mobility, not only on formal standards.
• Involve people with disabilities and other groups with reduced mobility as direct participants in media materials rather than external commentators.
• Combine criticism with solutions by showing not only problems but also possible ways to address them and examples of positive change.
• Use media as a platform for civic dialogue, where residents can report barriers and monitor authorities’ responses.
• Treat accessibility as a universal value that benefits not only people with disabilities but the entire community.
• Follow up on the effects of publications by returning to the issue after initial changes and demonstrating that journalistic attention can have a lasting impact.