Almost 500 days before the Paralympic Games, Patrice Tripoteau, deputy general manager of APF France handicap, warns of the current situation in terms of accessibility for people with disabilities.
Olympic and Paralympic week (April 3 to 8) is organized this year around the theme of inclusion through sports practice. What is the reality today for people with disabilities who want to play sports?
There is a first obstacle which is the barrier that they put themselves: very often, they do not even have the idea of doing a physical activity because they think that they are not capable of it.
If they take the plunge, they are then faced with multiple obstacles: there must be infrastructure to welcome them, but also transport to get there and sometimes human assistance to help them put on sports clothes.
The organizers of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPG) have communicated a great deal on the subject of “Inclusive Games” and accessibility will be one of the big issues. Will the appointment be kept?
France is way behind. We are told that 350,000 people with disabilities will come to attend the JOP. There will be 4,000 to 5,000 wheelchair users per day. However, in Greater Paris, there are only 3,500 adapted rooms.
Furthermore, will there be enough staff at stations and airports to accommodate them? And how will they get to the competition sites with an almost inaccessible metro? The difficulties that we will encounter for these Games are indicative of the state of accessibility in France.
What could be the solutions?
There must be a variety of access methods to the sites with adapted shuttles, a greater number of taxis accessible to people in wheelchairs or even the possibility of using a private car.
In addition, all accessible rooms should only be granted to people with disabilities; there is no legal obligation today. But our alert was heard since we were notably received at the Elysée. It’s going in the right direction.
What do you expect from the Games?
They must be an accelerator for the heritage. The more we have advanced on accessibility, the more it will remain afterwards. For the moment, the reality is not pretty. It is really the image of France in the world that is at stake.
We hope that the stadiums will be full and that it will be highly publicized to have a strong impact on the general public. We are also waiting to see how the ceremonies of the Olympic Games will stage people with disabilities: at the opening of the London Games (2012), there were some among the dancers. This is what will give visibility.
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