Dmytro Oleksandrovych Shchebetyuk (born October 11, 1989, Kamianets-Podilskyi) is a Ukrainian public figure, founder of the Dostupno.UA organization, author of the Toaster Ukrainian City Accessibility Rating Project, athlete, blogger, and host of the Inclusion section of the "#@)₴?$0" from Toronto Television.
He was born on October 11, 1989 in Kamianets-Podilskyi. Father Oleksandr Dmytrovych is a military man, mother Larysa Vasylivna is an economist. She has a younger sister Natalia. He graduated from the National Aviation University with a degree in automation and automation in transport. During his studies he was engaged in scientific activities. Back in school he became interested in music. During his university years he played in the band Chaos Limit.
In 2011, he suffered a spinal cord and spine injury as a result of a fall. He has been moving in a wheelchair ever since. In December 2015, he founded the Dostupno.UA initiative, which later became a public organization.
In 2016 he was the host of the special project "Paralympics-2016. Studio" on UA: First TV channel. In 2017, he joined the second season of the satirical program "#@)₴?$0" with Michael Schur, host of the "Inclusion" section. In the following seasons he appeared as a guest host of the program.
Professional activity
Prior to its establishment, Dostupno.UA was engaged in public activities: it constantly participated in discussions on the availability of city infrastructure and locations in the business sphere. He also advocated the need to improve the accessibility situation and the right to visit Sport Life gyms. During Dmytro's first visit to the Sport Life gym, employees refused to let him in, despite having a network subscription. The administrator later stated that they "do not work with such people." As a result of further communication, the network made concessions, arranged an entrance and a locker room, since then Dmytro continues to visit the network's gyms without hindrance.
At the beginning of its existence, Dostupno.UA was engaged in checking locations for accessibility for low-mobility groups. Subsequently, inspections of individual locations culminated in the creation of an accessibility map, which at the time of creation included 19 Ukrainian cities. The organization began to develop its own website and video blog, where Dmitry acted as a presenter, author of ideas and director.
In 2017, Dmytro hitchhiked in a wheelchair to Ukraine. He visited 17 cities and already during the trip he expanded his geography to neighboring Belarus. In two years, Dmytro hitchhiked again to DostupnoEurotour. The format of the trip has undergone some changes: Dmytro did not travel alone, but with a friend, for a period of one month, without a specific route - the next city of their trip to Europe was chosen by subscribers of Dostupno.UA, the budget for two was 100 euros. During the trip, the guys visited more than 30 cities in 10 countries. The purpose of both hitchhikers is to show that everyone can travel, regardless of their level of mobility or budget.
In 2019, he created the first in Ukraine rating of accessibility of cities "Toaster". At the initial stage, the ranking included ten cities: Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Kherson, Mykolayiv, Kamyanets-Podilsky, Vinnytsia, Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, Cherkasy. Currently, the ranking consists of 13 cities, which will be joined at the end of the year by five more cities from Eastern Ukraine.
Sports activities
He went skiing and kayaking. At the end of 2012 he started swimming. The following year he took part in swimming competitions for the first time. In 2015 he confirmed the title of master of sports in swimming. In the same year he rose to the seventh line of the world ranking in swimming in his group, and in 2018 - to the sixth. In early 2019, he announced his refusal to participate in the preparations for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo to focus entirely on community service and Available.UA.
In 2016, he joined the reserve of the Paralympic archery team.
Multiple winner of Ukrainian swimming championships and cups. In 2018, he made a cross-continental swim across the Bosphorus from Asia to Europe, 6 km long.
Interesting Facts
In 2016, he was one of the speakers at TEDx Kyiv.
In 2017, he became a special guest and speaker at the International Summit of Mayors, where he covered the topic of inclusiveness of Ukrainian cities.
In 2017, he founded the annual Inclusion Forum.
Awards
For three years in a row, he was among the top 100 most influential Ukrainians in the rating of Focus magazine (2017, 2018, 2019).
He received the Top 30 under 30 award from the Kyiv Post newspaper, which is awarded to young Ukrainians who have achieved outstanding results in various fields.
He received the Human Rights Tulip from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Participated in the project Ukraine's next generation from the British Embassy in Ukraine.
On August 23, 2021 he received the Order of Merit of the III degree - for significant personal contribution to state building, defense, socio-economic, scientific, technical, cultural and educational development of the Ukrainian state, significant labor achievements, many years of hard work and on the occasion of 30 anniversary of Ukraine's independence.
