How the upcoming Paralympics are driving accessibility in Paris

20.08.2024 - 17:44 / lonelyplanet.com / Paris Olympics

Aug 20, 2024 • 0 min read

With the close of the Paris Olympics, a running joke on social media is that many viewers have been at a loss of how to fill their days.

After all, for two weeks, the French capital became the center of the world, hosting what has been lauded as one of the most successful and innovative games over the last few decades. Between superhuman feats of athleticism, there were tears of joy and tears of disappointment, all against the stunning background of the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Palais and the Seine river. It made for some dramatic and captivating television.

But the excitement isn’t over ⁠— these next few weeks are a short intermission until the Paralympics, which run from August 28 to September 8. The opening ceremony will take place outdoors at Place de la Concorde. Events will be held across some of the same venues that made the Olympics so mesmerizing, including Pont Alexandre III and the Eiffel Tower.

Demand for tickets has also taken off following the close of the Olympics, with locals looking for a way to prolong the collective euphoria experienced throughout the Games. After a slow start, organizers say that sales for the Paralympics average about 1000 tickets an hour, and that events in the most iconic venues ⁠— Versailles and Grand Palais ⁠— are sold out. 

While Paris has hosted three Olympics, this year marks the first time the city is hosting a Paralympic Games. Along with innovative solutions for travelers with disabilities, perhaps the biggest legacy of the Paralympics will be how it’s served as an accelerator to make the cityscape – often described as an obstacle course for travelers with disabilities – more accessible and inclusive through improvements to city infrastructure and transportation. 

To enhance the spectator experience among the estimated 280,000 visitors with disabilities, organizers are introducing a few innovative services that will also mark a few firsts for the Paralympics.

Attendees of events – like blind soccer, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball – who are blind or visually impaired will be able to follow the action with a tactile tablet Touch2See that offers a live-action, immersive experience. A moving magnet replicates the position of the ball in real time and the tablet vibrates to convey the intensity of the game. Likewise, audio descriptions fed through headsets provide precise information about the plays. Spectators with visual impairments can also use low-vision headsets that look like VR headsets and act like high-powered binoculars, to zoom in on the action for athletic competitions and for the opening and closing ceremonies.

In an Olympic first, the audio description service will also be available via the Olympics app, allowing