Every year on December 3, Ukraine joins the international community in celebrating the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. They have faced difficult trials, but overcoming difficulties, they show exceptional strength of spirit and unwavering faith in life.

They do not demand pity for themselves, because, like no one else, they have long realized that this is a path to nowhere. It happened because any other person could have been in their place. And they don't need anything special, just the most basic things - the opportunity to live, to live among people, to be in society and to feel like people, just like the rest of us. After all, we are all equal before God, we were all created by the Creator.

Today, we must make efforts to remove barriers to self-realization for people with special needs and guarantee access to decent education.

While dealing with everyday problems, we should think about the difficult fate of people with disabilities and not only on this day, but throughout the year, we should not forget that people with disabilities live next to us and need help and attention. By protecting the dignity of the disabled, we protect our humanity. Disability is not a sentence. Practice shows that people with disabilities can be and become full-fledged and highly effective members of society, excellent specialists, socially active and life-affirming people who inspire many, including perfectly healthy members of our society.