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Good practice Imported

Diia's Digital Accessibility Competence Centre — Institutionalising Inclusive Design in Ukraine's e-Government Platform

Ukraine · Kyiv · See the Ukraine profile · See the Kyiv profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 24% 92/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation and UNDP built a Digital Accessibility Competence Centre inside Diia, moving it from 2 of 10 basic accessibility criteria met in 2023 to overhauled screen-reader, contrast and PDF accessibility, training 5,000+ officials nationwide.

2 of 10 criteria
Basic accessibility criteria met by Diia (baseline) (2023)
21 officials from 8 regions
First Web Accessibility Academy cohort (graduated June 2026)
5,000+ officials
State/local officials trained in web accessibility (5-year cumulative) (past 5 years)
Diia's Digital Accessibility Competence Centre — Institutionalising Inclusive Design in Ukraine's e-Government Platform

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine / State Enterprise Diia, with UNDP Ukraine and the Government of Sweden
Period
2022 (mandatory standard) – 2024 (Centre established) – present
Keywords
digital government, disability inclusion, e-government

Context

Ukraine made web accessibility mandatory for state bodies under a standard that took effect in 2022, but implementation lagged: as of 2023 the flagship Diia e-government portal met only two of ten basic digital-accessibility criteria.

Activities

In 2024 the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the State Enterprise Diia, working with UNDP Ukraine under the Sweden-funded 'Digital, Inclusive, Accessible' (DIA) Support Project, opened Ukraine's first state-level Digital Accessibility Competence Centre. The Centre reworked Diia's public-facing services with correct screen-reader labels, higher-contrast text, visible keyboard-focus indicators, properly pronounced audio error messages and accessible PDF documents, completing the citizen-facing account section by 3 December 2025, and produced an official Ukrainian translation of WCAG 2.1.

Results

To build capacity beyond the Centre itself, the programme runs a Web Accessibility Academy for civil servants: its first cohort, 21 officials from eight regions including Kharkiv, Kherson and Luhansk, graduated in June 2026. Over the past five years, more than 5,000 representatives of state and local government across nearly half of Ukraine's regions have completed basic web-accessibility training.

Conclusions

A draft law approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in late 2025 would extend the accessibility mandate from state bodies to the private sector, though as with any wartime reform its funding and timeline depend on continued donor support.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Sweden-funded, UNDP-supported Competence Centre embedded within Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation/Diia, covering technical remediation work and a recurring Web Accessibility Academy training programme.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — 2022 mandatory standard, Centre opened 2024, citizen account accessibility completed by December 2025, first Academy cohort graduated June 2026; a 2025 draft law would extend the mandate to the private sector.
Staffing & skills
Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and State Enterprise Diia technical teams, UNDP Ukraine programme staff under the Sweden-funded DIA Support Project, Web Accessibility Academy trainers

Conditions for success

  • Dedicated, permanent Competence Centre embedded within the platform team rather than a one-off external audit
  • An official Ukrainian translation of WCAG 2.1 giving implementers a shared reference standard
  • Sustained donor funding (Sweden via UNDP) given wartime budget constraints
  • A structured, cohort-based Web Accessibility Academy to build capacity in regional government beyond the Centre itself

Common failure modes

  • Diia met only 2 of 10 basic accessibility criteria as of 2023 before the Centre's remediation work began
  • A 2025 draft law extending the mandate to the private sector depends on continued donor support amid wartime conditions

Where it fits

Governance type
national digital ministry + international donor partnership
Scale
national
Income level
lower-middle-income (wartime economy)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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