According to Yurii Kholod, the Deputy Chairman of the Lviv Regional Council, the Kharkiv Resource Center for the Blind unfortunately does not exist anymore, and two in Kyiv have been evacuated, the equipment has been preserved. Therefore, the Lviv region is trying to attract the resources of the UN Development Program to increase capacity and create all the necessary inclusive materials for the whole Ukraine.
Oksana Potymko, head of the Resource Center for Educational Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities, Lviv Polytechnic National University and the Lviv Regional Branch of the Ukrainian union of persons with disabilities, says that her institution has been working for the whole Ukraine for a long time. In peacetime, they helped boarding schools for the blind, but mainly developed inclusion: providing books, audio, and daisy players to blind children in regular schools.
In a few years, 40 blind students studied in ordinary schools in different regions. Now, when these children go to schools in Europe, they are surprised that our children have such quality materials and such a high level of knowledge.
«We have been working for the whole Ukraine for a long time. After the beginning of a full-scale invasion, we help blind children and adults from all over Ukraine to leave dangerous areas, accompany and help those who temporarily stop in Lviv and then go to different European countries. We also raise funds, purchase and package food for those children and adults who cannot see but stay in Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Sumy and other cities. There are many of those who do not want to leave their homes. Also last week we transferred 200 books in Braille to Poland, and we are preparing such a circulation to Lithuania. There are many of our blind refugee children in these countries», says Oksana Potymko.
The biggest need of the Resource Center for the Blind at Lviv Polytechnic is the purchase of a new printer that can print in Braille. The price of a semi-professional device is about 550 thousand hryvnias. We also need consumables and assistance with the payment of specialists.
Joint projects of UNDP and Lviv specialists may include the creation of pilot inclusive groups in the areas with lots of blind children who need to be taught to read in Braille, the arrangement of a children's room and the provision of full inclusion for the future Resource Center for relocated business which is to be created in Lviv.
Currently in Ukraine, according to Oksana Potymko, there are officially more than 80,000 blind people.