In 2008, after sustaining a spinal cord injury, Lyudmyla returned home and realised the world she had always known was suddenly inaccessible.

Before the injury, she worked as a schoolteacher, lived an active life, and was always on the move. “Honestly, I had never thought about accessibility before,” she says. “I didn't have small children, I didn’t know anyone for whom it was important, and I had never experienced these barriers myself.”

What proved hardest was not the injury itself, but the loss of independence that came with it. “My wheelchair wouldn’t fit through the doors, so I was basically confined to my room,” Lyudmyla recalls. “If I wanted water, I had to ask someone to bring it. If I wanted food, I had to ask someone again. I think it was harder to come to terms with that helplessness than with the injury itself.”

Over time, she stopped waiting for life to “go back to normal” and started adapting her surroundings instead. One day, she called her brother.

“Do something with this kitchen,” she told him.

He removed the doorway thresholds, rearranged the furniture, and redesigned the space so her wheelchair could move freely.

“And suddenly,” she says, “the kitchen became mine again.”

She started with what seemed like small things – cooking on her own again, washing dishes, and regaining pieces of her independence. Later, Lyudmyla was invited to Vinnytsia to attend a camp organised by Harmony, a local Ukrainian NGO. There, she met Raisa Panasiuk, one of the country's most prominent disability rights advocates.

“I saw a person with a severe congenital disability who moved independently around the city, worked, organised projects, and lived an incredibly active life,” Lyudmyla says. “It changed something in me.”

She began travelling to Vinnytsia more often and joining in the NGO’s activities.

“They invited me to go bowling, to different events,” she says. “It was a completely different world for me – full of experiences and activities I had never even thought about before my injury.”

At one of those events, she met her future husband.

Eventually, Lyudmyla joined the organisation professionally and, after Raisa Panasiuk’s passing, became its head. Today, she conducts accessibility audits and provides further improvement recomendations, advocates for change in communities, and works to advance barrier-free environments across Vinnytsia and the wider region, while continuing to expand her expertise.

She studied at UNDP’s Universal Design School and later served as a trainer and mentor for participants of the Barrier-Free Routes School, that is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, together with the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, with financial support from Japan. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in construction and civil engineering.

When asked what achievement she is most proud of, Lyudmyla talks about Vinnytsia.

She recalls how her team spent more than a year working to introduce Ukraine’s first Kassel kerbs – specially designed boarding platforms at public transport stops that make it easier for older people, wheelchair users, parents with strollers, travellers with luggage, and people with prosthetics or temporary injuries to board public transport independently.

Kassel kerbs are one of those almost invisible solutions that quietly transform an ordinary bus stop into a barrier-free space. Unlike standard kerbs, they have a curved shape that allows low-floor buses and trolleybuses to pull up extremely close to the platform without damaging the tyres. This minimises the gap between the vehicle and the stop, making boarding safer and easier for everyone.

“Vinnytsia became the first city in Ukraine to order these kerbs,” Lyudmyla explains.

“Special moulds had to be created specifically for us, which actually made that first stop more expensive.”

Today, these kerbs work alongside tactile navigation systems and low-floor public transport across renovated streets in Vinnytsia, creating a connected and accessible urban environment. For many residents, it means moving through the city independently and with dignity.

Vinnytsia is now widely recognised as one of Ukraine’s leaders in accessibility and barrier-free urban development. The city has worked systematically on these issues since the mid-2000s. In 2024, Vinnytsia topped the accessibility ranking for people with disabilities in a municipal survey conducted by the International Republican Institute.

“We need to make accessibility not an option, but the norm,” Lyudmyla says.