Name: Dmytro Schebetyuk
Age: 28
Education: Kyiv National Aviation University
Profession: Founder of Dostupno UA initiative, blogger
Did you know? A keen swimmer, he plans to swim across the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey.
Dmytro Schebetyuk, 28, suffered a spinal injury seven years ago, and is now a wheelchair user.
Schebetyuk co-founded the Dostupno UA initiative, which tests various venues in Kyiv for their accessibility to wheelchair users, and films video blogs about infrastructure and life of people with disabilities in Ukraine.
Schebetyuk said that his main goal is to show that using a wheelchair is not an obstacle to having a full life.
“The initiative aims to change the attitude towards people with disabilities, and change their self-perception,” he said.
Schebetyuk launched Dostupno UA three years ago with his friend and StopFake founder Margo Gontar. The idea came to them when they set up a meeting in a café that didn’t have ramps for wheelchair users. The two then decided to review the accessibility of other cafes.
“There is a vicious circle: the owners say they don’t have any clients in wheelchairs, (but that’s because) people with disabilities can’t access the venue,” Schebetyuk said.
He said business and civic organizations are much more open to change than the state. Many cafes have made changes based on his advice, and some owners now ask him to come and test their venues.
Schebetyuk also started making funny videos of him doing extreme wheelchair stunts, which brought him thousands of views. He travels a lot and likes to hitchhike during trips. He also loves swimming and archery — he even won a place in the second team of Ukraine’s national Paralympic archery team.
“We’re also trying to show all the positive changes. For example, we now have special cars in trains for people with disabilities,” Schebetyuk said.
Schebetyuk also recently launched his own section on the show of popular Ukrainian satirical journalist Roman Vintoniv, better known under his character name Michael Shchur, in which he talks about the lack of infrastructure for wheelchair users.
In his videos, he tries to show that people with disabilities are just like everyone else. While his comic videos are usually sarcastic humor, his Dostupno UA videos tend not to focus on disability, but rather on exploring a city, or using lifestyle or beauty products.
“I don’t like to stay in one place. I was like that before my injury, and nothing has changed,” Schebetyuk said. “We encourage people with disabilities get out of their homes, because the more other people see them, the faster their attitude towards them, and the accessibility environment, will change.”
