Strolling through the alleys of the future Olympic village at the end of August, it is still difficult to imagine that in less than a year, this place will become the nerve center of world sport for more than a month. This district of more than 50 hectares located between the towns of Saint-Ouen and Saint-Denis, built from scratch for the event, only looks like a vast construction site for the moment. At the crossroads of roads that are still gutted and buildings that are largely unfinished, jackhammers and diggers are busy getting the site ready before the deadline of March 1, 2024. The Olympic facilities delivery company (Solideo), in charge works, assures him, however, almost like a credo: “We are perfectly on time.”
Among the many challenges posed by the construction of this Olympic Village, accessibility for people with disabilities ranks high. During the Paralympic Games, from August 28 to September 8, 2024, nearly 4,400 para-athletes from 182 nations will be present in France. In the Olympic Village, the main entrance will be via an accessible spiral ramp, the installation of which began in August. The rooms will also all be adapted for all handicaps, while special signage will be put in place throughout the site, in order to facilitate the daily life of para-athletes.
“The Olympic village must not be the tree that hides the forest”, nevertheless tempers Nicolas Merville, specialist in accessibility issues at the APF France handicap association. Because behind “the biggest world parasport celebration in history”vsas you wish the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, hides the always very difficult inclusion of the 12 million French people with disabilities (in the broadest criteria). This observation is not only the prerogative of specialized associations. On April 17, 2023, the Council of Europe concluded that there was a “violation” of the commitments made by France in terms of accessibility. Two years earlier, it was the UN that severely questioned the French policy for people with disabilities. Paris 2024 was therefore going a long way to live up to its promise: that of “inclusive” and “accessible” Games.
The public transport problem
A figure comes up very often to denounce the lack of accessibility of the capital: only 3% of the Paris metro would be accessible today, more precisely line 14. And if the new lines built as part of the Grand Paris works will be completely, the debate around the historical Parisian lines does not fall. On this subject, Ile-de-France Mobilités (IdFM), the public transport organizing authority for the region, wants to be clear. “Our metro is more than a hundred years old on some lines. Several studies have shown that in some places, if we wanted to widen the corridors or build elevators, there would be risks of collapse and technical impossibilities. Some stations are classified as historical monuments, with heavy heritage issues. We could only make a handful of stations accessible on the lines, without even all the connections”, explains Grégoire de Lasteyrie, vice-president of IdFM. Without forgetting the question of the staggering cost of this work and the impact that would represent the closure of many stations on the daily life of people, adds the organization chaired by Valérie Pécresse.
Explanations that are far from unanimous. “For the organization of the Games in 2012, London had committed to having more accessible stations. However, the London Underground is older and deeper than the Paris Metro, and they encountered technical difficulties at least as important However, they have crossed the 18% of accessible stations, whereas today we are far from the mark in Paris”, does not take off Nicolas Mérille, of the association APF France Handicap. Faced with this, IdFM replies that the Paris metro is much denser than that of its London equivalent, and that the comparison is pointless. “I don’t know if we weren’t a little deluded on this issue. There was never a collective consensus to obtain this immense victory, between the state, the region, the city , the RATP… These are works that are counted in billions of euros”, notes Elie Patrigeon, director general of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee.
This debate on the Paris metro, which seems almost endless, should not, however, make us forget the significant progress that the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) will have allowed for public transport in the Ile-de-France region. “All Parisian lines (65 lines) are already fully accessible, while 86% of the inner suburbs bus network (i.e. 296 lines)” is, assures Ile-de-France Mobilités. Not forgetting the tram network, which is now completely accessible to people with disabilities, as is the network of RER and Transilien stations.
In addition to this public transport, Paris 2024 plans to set up a fleet of shuttles specially dedicated to people with disabilities, which will serve the various Olympic and Paralympic sites, which are themselves accessible. “A bandage on a wooden leg”, regrets Pascale Ribes, president of APF France Handicap, whose association campaigns for permanent facilities. Even if the shuttles have the advantage of being able to drop off spectators with reduced mobility at a much shorter distance from the sites than public transport. More than 1,000 accessible taxis will also be made available, a legacy that will live on after the Games.
Not enough accessible housing
The issue of accommodation for people with disabilities is also one of the major challenges of these Games, far from being resolved. More than 4,000 spectators in wheelchairs are expected each day during the Olympic Games, and 2,500 during the Paralympic Games. A challenge for the hotel sector, as the estimated number of adapted rooms today barely exceeds 3,000. Faced with this problem, the Paris 2024 organizing committee has announced the organization of a large consultation of accessible housing from September, convinced that this number would in fact be underestimated. Aid will also be offered to hoteliers from October, in order to be able to carry out “small works to allow accessibility”. Pascale Ribes, president of APF France Handicap, is in any case certain: “people in wheelchairs will not come if they do not have the assurance of having acceptable conditions. By not giving the right signals, some could give up coming to attend the Games, which is nevertheless their strictest right.
The site of the athletes’ village for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in Saint-Ouen near Paris, on February 13, 2023.
© / AFP
Faced with the lack of accessible accommodation, the organization of Paris 2024 also intends to help change mentalities. After the Games, the Olympic Village will be able to accommodate no less than 6,000 inhabitants, with particularly stringent accessibility criteria: new shower models, even wider doors, signage better adapted to different disabilities. “We are already obliged to meet requirements, details Julie Bosch, project director at Vinci Immobilier, one of the main promoters for the construction of the athletes’ village. But we can clearly see that we are witnessing a change in culture, with a greater consideration of issues of universal accessibility. Here, we even went further than what French regulations require. And we could see that it was ultimately not so complicated to implement.”
Political will questioned
If awareness is accelerating, how to explain that such great difficulties are still felt? For APF France Handicap, the culprit is up there, on the side of the State. “No government has been proactive in carrying out a real public accessibility policy, plagues Nicolas Merville. We passed major disability laws in 1975, 2005 and 2014, but no measures were taken to they are really implemented. There is a repressive system that exists in the law, but even the President of the Republic has repeated that he does not want sanctions. It is not understandable that we pass laws , and that the State does not ensure their proper application.
The application of the 2005 law for “equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship of people with disabilities” raises questions in particular. It provided that by 2015, all establishments open to the public (ERP) as well as public transport should be fully accessible. Faced with the impossibility of meeting the deadlines, the deadline had been postponed until 2024. However, in 2023, only half of the ERPs in France had started accessibility work, according to Carole Guéchi, ministerial delegate at the accessibility to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, questioned by the Gazette des Communes last February.
To speed up State policy on this subject, Emmanuel Macron held a National Conference on Disability on April 26, where the President of the Republic announced that the State was going to devote 1.5 billion euros to improving accessibility in public places. Funding of which the city of Paris has not yet seen the trace, despite the approach of the JOP. “For the moment, the State has not financed anything”, according to Lamia El Aaraje, adviser to the town hall of Paris who boasts more than 125 million euros of investments for accessibility by 2026.
“Things are progressing, but at a turtle pace”
The main legacy that these Paralympic Games will perhaps leave is perhaps above all to be found in the awareness of the current delays and difficulties of people with disabilities. “We have a legacy approach in terms of changing the way we look at disability. We are in the process of seizing this dynamic to move forward on this”, wants to believe Ludivine Munos, head of Paralympic integration for Paris 2024, and she -even a triple gold medalist at the Paralympic Games. “Living in our country with a disability today is a daily struggle. Things are progressing, but at a turtle pace. We must hope that this world exhibition shakes up everyone”, insists Jean- Louis Garcia, President of the Association for Disabled Adults and Young People (APAJH).
“The mistake was to suggest that the Games could change everything. It is above all a sporting event. Even if there are advances that have been made, they were not going to be able to solve everything, recognizes Elie Patrigeon , of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee. In any case, it is a sign that things are changing. We have never talked so much about accessibility as in recent years. But the emergence of these questions must not fall to the outcome of the Games.”