Article – Telegraph (UK): ‘My life as a blind lawyer in Ukraine’s frontline city’

Oleh Lepetiuk, 54, is a tall, imposing man, in a crisp dark grey suit, whose head almost scrapes the low ceiling of his office in central Kharkiv – a couple of pokey basement rooms with sharp corners that his 23-year-old daughter helps him manoeuvre.

Oleh is one of the founders of the Blind Lawyer Association of Ukraine. He is visually impaired himself, and has been practicing law for almost 30 years with a special focus on disability cases.

Law studies do not have a reputation for being easy and they certainly weren’t for Oleh in 1990s Ukraine, where notions of accessibility were non-existent. One artefact remains from that time: a brown and bulky tape recorder, covered in dust, that he carried to class every single day.

“It weighs four kilograms. I couldn’t find a dictaphone in Kharkiv at the time, so I had a local guy install a handmade microphone into the tape recorder to record lectures. It’s very precious to me, I just can’t throw it away.”

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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/2025/01/31/blind-lawyer-ukraine-frontline-disability-rights/