The Paralympics are coming to Paris. Will Paralympians be able to get around?
| Saint-Denis, France
Anne-Marie d鈥橝cremont is one of France鈥檚 top wheelchair basketball and rugby players, having played for the national team in both sports. When she hits the court, she navigates it with ease, snaking between her opponents before taking the ball to the net.
But getting to practice on Paris鈥� public transportation system is a different story.
鈥淭here鈥檚 only one metro line that has wheelchair access, and if the elevator is broken, I鈥檓 stuck,鈥� says Ms. d鈥橝cremont during a meeting with students at the University of Paris 8 in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. 鈥淭he station manager will tell me to go to the next stop, which can be a half-mile down the road. But I have no choice. There鈥檚 no way I鈥檓 missing practice because of that.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onThe Olympics aren鈥檛 the only event coming to Paris this summer. So are the Paralympics, and the city is trying to change how the French see accessibility, so that athletes and visitors with disabilities can feel welcome 鈥� now, and in the future.
Ms. d鈥橝cremont is the first to say that she has adapted to Paris when Paris doesn鈥檛 adapt to her. She鈥檚 used a wheelchair for over a decade, since she had Lyme disease as a teen and lost the ability to walk. She doesn鈥檛 harp on what she can鈥檛 do 鈥� only what she can.
Yet as Paris gets set to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer, city officials are under added pressure to improve accessibility and disability rights. The French capital is expected to welcome upward of 350,000 visitors living with a disability during the Games, and its centuries-old underground transportation system is just one of many areas of Parisian life that poses challenges to those with disability.
But more than the Paris Games improving accessibility around the city, Olympic organizers say they want the event to be a catalyst for creating broader awareness and inclusion of the 12 million people in France living with disabilities.
Olympic and Paralympic Games of the past have had an impact on their societies and can provide lessons, but disability rights activists say more needs to be done if Paris is to make true societal change.
鈥淭he vision of disability is often either one of misery or heroism,鈥� says Emmanuelle Fillion, a sociologist on disability at the School聽for Higher Education in Social Sciences in聽Paris. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not to take away from the merits of our Paralympic athletes, but focusing on their ability to push limits doesn鈥檛 help us understand what daily life is like for people living with disability ... or how to create a more inclusive society.鈥�
A new government priority
The rights of disabled people in France have been set forth by two major pieces of legislation in the last 50 years 鈥� one in 1975, primarily to orient the sociomedical sector, and another in 2005 to define disability for the first time in France.
But due to various draft laws and exemptions, much of that legislation was never implemented. In a 2021 report, the United Nations called on the French government to 鈥渞eview and bring into line鈥� its disability policies with U.N. conventions.
The current government is hoping to change that. It wants to use the Olympics and Paralympic Games to improve accessibility, and made that a cornerstone of its candidacy to host the Games.
The government has pumped 鈧�1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) into making the Paris region鈥檚 transportation system, shops, and restaurants more accessible by this summer. It will also provide 1,000 taxi drivers with state aid to go toward buying vehicles accessible to wheelchair users and those with reduced mobility, which will be available during and after the Games. Taking cues from the London Games, Paris organizers have consciously promoted the Olympics and Paralympics as one uniform event.
But changing public views about disability has been harder.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had to do a lot of trainings and awareness raising,鈥� says Didier Eyssartier, director of Agefiph, an organization that is working with Olympic organizers to provide volunteer and work opportunities to people with disabilities during the Games. 鈥淪ome employers think someone with a disability won鈥檛 be able to do a certain job or that hiring them will be complicated. ... We need to continue changing perspectives.鈥�
Such stereotypes predate Olympic and Paralympic planning and are hard to tackle. According to by polling center Ifop, 72% of French people associated disability with wheelchair use 鈥� compared with the roughly 10% of French people with disabilities who actually use one. Meanwhile, only 8% and 9% associated disability with visual and hearing disabilities, respectively, though people with those make up more than half of France鈥檚 population with disabilities.聽More than three-quarters of those polled felt that disabilities weren鈥檛 adequately represented on French television.
Change is slow, but coming. Since the beginning of 2023, two new roles have been created on prime-time television for actors with physical or mental disability. And France鈥檚 audiovisual sector is trying to boost awareness after a 2021 report showed that only 0.8% of people with disabilities were represented on television screens.
鈥淟ast year, my editor asked me if I would show my wheelchair during my broadcasts,鈥� says Youssef Bouchikhi, who presents a culture program for public broadcaster France T茅l茅visions. 鈥淎t first I felt strange about it. I didn鈥檛 want people to just see that. But now I think it鈥檚 a good thing.鈥�
A need to show real progress
There are hopes that the Paralympic Games can make similar strides in raising awareness, as was the case during the London Olympics. In 2012, late-night talk show 鈥淭he Last Leg鈥� was broadcast alongside the Paralympic Games, featuring three comedians, two of whom are each missing a foot or leg. During the Games, the show brought in more than a million viewers each night. It was so popular that it continued after the Games and has aired more than 320 episodes through this year.
But finding a balance between explicitly addressing disability and normalizing it has been a challenge. Ms. Fillion, the sociologist, says society must be wary of 鈥渉andi-washing.鈥�
鈥淲e can鈥檛 show that we鈥檙e a disability-friendly place if we don鈥檛 then help make daily life easier for someone with disabilities,鈥� she says.
The city of London has struggled to maintain the momentum it gained during the Paralympic Games. While they did lead to a rebuild of several underground tube stations, only one-third of stations currently offer step-free access.
Japan, meanwhile, used its Olympics in Tokyo,聽which took place in 2021, as a vehicle to overhaul the accessibility of its national rail system, which is now over 90% barrier-free. It also introduced a host of disability laws, including one that explicitly bans discrimination.
As Paris looks ahead to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, organizers still have challenges ahead. President Emmanuel Macron admitted on national television in mid-April that Paris鈥� public transportation system would not be 100% wheelchair-accessible by the Olympics. And only 830,000 out of the 2.8 million tickets for Paralympic events have thus far been sold.
But if this summer鈥檚 Olympic and Paralympic events can push forward the discussion on disability, accessibility, and inclusion, advocates say that鈥檚 one step in the right direction.
鈥淪ometimes kids will walk by and point at my wheelchair, and their parents will shush them,鈥� says Ms. d鈥橝cremont. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure they鈥檙e just trying to be nice, but I wish they would come over and ask me about it instead. Disability is not something we need to hide.鈥�
