Our organisation has secured partnership support from SoftServe — a global digital engineering and technology consulting company. Together, we aim to develop our own digital app for hosting and playing audio descriptions. This will enable more people with visual impairments to watch human rights documentary films. The partnership became possible thanks to the NGO “Docudays” winning the “Open Call 2026” competition organised by OpenTech, SoftServe’s pro bono programme.

For more than seven years, the NGO “Docudays” team has been systematically implementing accessible screening practices across its projects — from extended subtitles and audio description (a special audio track that describes what is happening on screen) to sign language interpretation and digital and physical accessibility practices.

Photo: Anastasiia Mantach

The International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA was among the first organisations in Ukraine to introduce accessible formats and has gradually developed them into an integrated system that opens the festival to a wider audience every year. For us, accessibility is not about individual tools, but about the opportunity to share a common experience regardless of how a person sees, hears, or interacts with the world.

As one example of how we have engaged a wider circle of people with this issue, this year, during the 23rd Docudays UA, we conducted the social experiment Shhh, I’m Watching a Film!. As part of the experiment, sighted viewers watched a film with audio description while wearing blindfolds. 150 viewers took part, including 15 civil society activists. Participants not only learned about the existence of audio description but also began to perceive it as a necessary tool for ensuring equal access to culture. In our post-experiment survey, the responses most frequently highlighted the importance of accessibility as a norm, the need for wider implementation of accessible formats at cultural events, and a desire to support such initiatives in the future.

Photo: Andrii Tsykota

“After more than seven years of working with accessible cinema, we have essentially created our own accessibility lab. Our team knows the entire audio description process from the inside — from working on the script and recording to testing and the screening itself.

A mobile app is the logical next step. It will allow us to bring accessible versions of our films together in one place and scale this practice to thousands of viewers across Ukraine. In the longer term, it will also allow us to turn our experience into a technological solution that other cultural institutions can use.

We are very happy to partner with SoftServe because, together, we want not simply to create an app, but to change the way accessibility works in cinema,” says Svitlana Smal, Executive Director of the NGO Docudays.

The team plans to scale the new solution through its networks — the Docudays UA Media Education Film Club Network and the Travelling Docudays UA, which reach thousands of viewers across different regions of Ukraine, from mountain communities in Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia regions to frontline cities in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.

“At OpenTech, it is important for us to use technology where it can amplify an important public voice and support initiatives that help build a more aware and resilient community. That is why we are pleased to begin our collaboration with the NGO ‘Docudays’ — an organisation that uses documentary cinema to draw attention to human rights, human dignity, and important social issues. It is especially important to us that this partnership focuses on inclusion — making important content accessible to as many people as possible. SoftServe volunteers will contribute to this work, and we believe our support will help the NGO ‘Docudays’ and the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA share their stories with even wider audiences in Ukraine and beyond,” commented Taisiya Koropets, Head of the OpenTech Programme at SoftServe.

At the time of publication, the NGO “Docudays” and SoftServe have signed a memorandum of cooperation and partnership and have therefore moved on to the project planning stage.The roadmap and key stages of the OpenTech programme, within which the partnership will take place, are available at the link.

Amid the full-scale war, the need for such a solution is becoming increasingly urgent: according to estimates by government authorities, the number of people with disabilities in Ukraine has already exceeded 3 million and continues to grow, in particular due to mine and explosive injuries and wounds resulting in vision loss. In this new reality, access to cultural life is becoming an important component of psychosocial recovery and a return to active life.

Follow the updates on our website and social media, where we will share news about the development of the digital app.



Photo: Andrii Tsykota

OpenTech is a pro bono programme initiated and created by SoftServe employees in 2019. Since then, 87 projects have been implemented through the programme in cooperation with government authorities and non-profit organisations in six countries. OpenTech partners include the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, UNICEF, UNFPA, Come Back Alive, WWF, and others.

SoftServe is a global digital engineering and technology consulting company specialising in AI, data, and cloud solutions. Around 10,000 employees work across 49 offices, from Latin America to the Middle East. Founded in Lviv in 1993, SoftServe is now among the leading employers in the markets of Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico.

Main photo: Anastasiia Mantach