Kyiv, 6 October 2026 — The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, with financial support from the Government of Japan, has launched the Universal Design School 2026.

This year, 30 participants were selected for the school. They include 10 occupational therapists, 10 architecture and design professionals, and 10 social workers from 14 regions of Ukraine – Odesa, Volyn, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Lviv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi oblasts.

The participants have been grouped into teams, with each team including representatives of all three professional fields. This format, which is being introduced in Ukraine for the first time, aims to equip professionals to assess a person’s needs and functional abilities comprehensively, identify appropriate tools and solutions, and jointly design living and working environments that are convenient and functional from the outset.

“Creating an environment that is truly comfortable and convenient for people requires an interdisciplinary approach,” said Tetiana Lomakina, Adviser – Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Barrier-Free Environment. “Social workers, occupational therapists and architects need to work together in this process, bringing expertise in understanding individual needs, designing spaces and adapting environments appropriately. I am convinced that collaboration among these professionals is the right path towards a barrier-free environment, and I am therefore very pleased to welcome the launch of training for such multidisciplinary teams at UNDP’s School of Universal Design,” she added.

Nataliia Kozlovska, Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories of Ukraine, said that the Government of Japan and UNDP had been reliable partners in advancing accessibility for several years – from developing practical solutions to training professionals in communities. 

“Importantly, this cooperation provides not only knowledge, but also concrete tools that can be applied in practice,” Kozlovska said. “This year’s school is particularly valuable because it brings together professionals from different fields in the same teams. This allows them to look at a person’s needs comprehensively – considering not only the physical environment, but also how people use it and what support they may need. These are exactly the kinds of professionals communities need to create living and working environments that work for different people from the outset,” she said.

The programme is designed to teach participants how to create living and working environments that work for people with different functional abilities and needs – including differences in mobility, upper-limb function, hearing, vision and communication, as well as for people with sensory sensitivities and neurodivergent people. Participants will also learn how to plan different ways of organising spaces so that people can carry out a range of everyday and professional activities.

Auke Lootsma, UNDP Resident Representative in Ukraine noted that accessibility becomes real when people experience it in their everyday lives – at home, at work and in their ability to live independently. 

“This is why professionals from different fields need to learn not simply to work alongside one another, but to work together – seeing the person, their needs and their environment as one interconnected whole,” Lootsma said. “Interdisciplinary teams like these can create solutions that genuinely work.” 

Participants will also speak directly with people with different lived experiences about the barriers they encounter at home and at work, the solutions they use, and why a space that formally meets accessibility requirements may still be difficult to use in practice. They will then move on to practical work, learning how to assess environments, use accessibility checklists, and select furniture and equipment based on the needs of different users. The teams will present their completed projects at the end of the year.

About the Universal Design School

UNDP launched the Universal Design School in 2018. Since then, 170 professionals from all over Ukraine have completed the programme.

On the basis of the projects developed by the participants of the 2024 and 2025 schools, Almanacs of Universal Design Solutions were created as practical resources to help communities replicate and apply the approaches developed through the programme.

The Universal Design School 2026 is organised by UNDP in Ukraine with financial support from the Government of Japan. The initiative is part of UNDP’s broader work to support an accessible and inclusive recovery in Ukraine.

Media inquiries:
Yuliia Samus, Head of Communications and Advocacy, UNDP in Ukraine yuliia.samus@undp.org