More than 1000 specialists trained to monitor the accessibility of streets and roads

Minregion and LUN Misto conducted training for specialists responsible for street and road infrastructure on carrying out annual accessibility monitoring in communities.

Participants examined updated criteria for assessing physical accessibility and practical requirements for streets and roads.

“Accessibility must cover a person’s entire journey — from their home to the building or space they need, without obstacles at any point. Streets and roads are an important part of these routes, because they connect facilities and must ensure continuous and accessible movement. Monitoring gives communities a real picture of accessibility and helps them use data to identify where changes are needed and what those changes should be,” Deputy Minister Nataliia Kozlovska stressed.

The training paid particular attention to the updated checklist for streets and roads. Specialists were shown how to conduct inspections, fill in accessibility forms, apply assessment criteria and enter results into the system.

The checklists now contain graphic examples for each criterion. This should make specialists’ work easier and help ensure a common understanding and assessment of accessibility requirements.

A distinctive feature of monitoring streets and roads is that they are linear features. They cannot be assessed at a single point: a specialist must walk the street from beginning to end and check pedestrian routes, crossings and other infrastructure elements on both sides.

The monitoring will assess, among other things:

- whether pedestrian routes are free of obstacles and sufficiently wide;

- the condition of the surface and the presence of curb ramps, ramps and handrails;

- standard and special tactile guides;

the safety and accessibility of stairs;

- accessibility of at-grade, elevated and underground crossings;

the presence of audible signals and adequate lighting at crossings;

- separation of cycle paths from pedestrian routes.

Approximately 2800 street and road features are already marked on the Accessibility Map, a digital representation of the monitoring results. This year, the number is expected to increase to more than 10 thousand.