Paris gears up for 2024 Paralympics
The Paralympics are set to kick off in Paris and the city is hoping to spotlight its work to make the games more accessible than ever before. It has been pouring millions into accessibility adaptations, but recalibrating a city like the French capital is no easy task.
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00:00Manel Senni has always shot for the moon, now the French wheelchair basketballer is
00:08taking time out from training to spread some Paralympic spirit among volunteers and local
00:14kids here in this Paris neighbourhood.
00:16It's important for me to finally get the real feelings about Paralympic sports, that they
00:25are sports like all sports, we work hard like all the athletes.
00:33For some, the excitement is already palpable.
00:38I'm so lucky to live in Paris because tourists are coming from all over and paying a lot
00:42of money to see the games and I can just watch them from my balcony.
00:49But the taster session is also an eye-opener for these players without disabilities.
00:56It gives you an idea of what wheelchair users feel every day.
01:01As part of its Paralympic preparation, the French capital has been trying to make those
01:06day-to-day experiences better.
01:09The city has been pouring millions into accessibility adaptations, renovating sports centres, creating
01:16hundreds of new disabled parking spaces, widening pathways and adding more infrastructure
01:22for people with visual impairments.
01:24Now all the buses are accessible, all the tramway is accessible, we have a lot of taxis
01:31accessible because we invest the game and we wanted the games to be an opportunity for
01:37us to change that.
01:40But the change hasn't reached all parts of town.
01:43The metro, first built in 1900, remains largely inaccessible, with many of those with reduced
01:50mobility left to struggle through the dense network daily.
01:55The city has been offering alternative shuttle routes to the games upon request, but for
02:00Manel, that doesn't go far enough.
02:03Me and a lot of people like me, we don't have a problem with our disabilities.
02:08It's really where we are that's going to make us more comfortable or not with our disabilities.
02:18She says she's confident things will get better, because she'll keep talking about it, to make
02:24sure that down the line, the Paralympics truly leave their mark on Paris.