Disability: 2024 Paralympic Games challenge Paris with accessibility

| August 21, 2024 | News | No Comments

Disability: 2024 Paralympic Games challenge Paris with accessibility

Les Jeux Paralympiques mettent Paris au défi de l’accessibilité MAXPPP – Delphine Goldsztejn

Le long et complexe chantier de l’accessibilité pour les personnes handicapées à Paris est mis sur le devant de la scène avec les Jeux paralympiques, la question du métro en tête.

The maze of corridors and staircases in stations that often lack elevators, as well as platforms that are not adjusted to the height of the trains, make the metropolitan network a mobility black spot for people with disabilities.

The president of the region and of the transport authority Île de France Mobilités (IDFM), Valérie Pécresse, made it the “next challenge” ten-year challenge in early August, and the City has committed to advocating for the project after the Games.

“We won't be able to put the network 100% accessible due to historical constraints, warns Pierre Deniziot, regional councillor and administrator of IDFM, but “where we can, we must do it”.

Nearly a million people in the Paris region, including 8% of the 2.1 million Parisians, are in a situation of handicap.

As the Paralympic Games approach (August 28 – September 8), only 29 metro stations on two lines (11 and 14) are accessible. Tram and bus lines, however, are “100%”, according to the town hall and IDFM. On the Paris region network (RER, Intercités, TER), four out of five stations, handling 95% of traffic, have been fitted out for the Games, assures IDFM.

However, Nicolas Mérille, national accessibility advisor at APF France handicap, denounces “a segregation that does not say its name : people with disabilities do not have the same daily life at all".

"No spontaneity" in everyday life

“We have no right to any spontaneity”, with “always everywhere disruptions in our movements”, obstacles in the street or to access establishments receiving the public, but also in transport, he argues.

RER lines require reservations or to go to a ticket office to be accompanied by agents. In the evening, “It's much more complicated”, underlines Karim Mimouni, treasurer of the Île-de-France Regional Handisport Committee: “go for a drink” or even “work late” requires having your own vehicle or calling a converted taxi, the number of which increased from 200 to 1,000 with the Games.

The PAM public transport on-demand service can be booked 48 hours in advance but is short of staff, IDFM acknowledges. By the end of September, all establishments receiving the public (ERP) must have complied.

But at the national level, only 900,000 out of 2 million ERPs have started the process, according to the office of the resigning Minister Delegate for Disabled People, Fadila Khattabi. In Paris, there are nearly 40,000, according to the police headquarters.

The city has made 91% of its establishments accessible, inaugurating seventeen “increased accessibility districts” (QAA) at the beginning of July, with specific routes to sports, health, cultural or school facilities. While he welcomes this work, Nicolas Mérille deplores the fact that'"you only have to go out into your neighborhood to see that many places are not accessible".

Don't "miss the boat"

In this context, what's next for the Olympic and Paralympic Games ? On the sports side,“The big challenge we will have in the legacy of these Games is the timetables”, already insufficient for all courses, believes Vincent Lassalle, president of the Paris departmental disabled sports committee.

Several stakeholders hope that the Games will lead to an influx of new members, able-bodied or disabled. By the start of the school year, Paris will have 50 "para-welcoming" clubs, with a dedicated section, and 3,400 parasport licensees, says Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor in charge of sport and the Games.

But the two federations of disabled sport (physical or sensory disability) and adapted sport (mental or psychological disability) are faced with the challenge of accompaniment.

"In the water, it is a (accompanist) for a" athlete who must be mobilized, describes Mr. Lassalle, who gives swimming lessons in the 15th arrondissement. He hopes that the Paralympic Games "will make people want to get involved". And warns public authorities and associations: “For it to work, we must not miss the boat”.

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