Ukraine's disability designers are learning to build a world with no barriers

Thirty professionals — ten occupational therapists, ten architects and designers, ten social workers — from 14 regions of Ukraine have been chosen for UNDP's Universal Design School 2026, funded by Japan. Working in mixed teams (a first in Ukraine), they learn to assess people's real needs and design homes and workplaces that work for people of all abilities — differences in mobility, hearing, vision, communication, sensory sensitivities and neurodivergence — from the outset, not as afterthoughts. Teams will present completed designs at year's end.