It’s been almost two years since the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics and it’s just under a year until the 2012 London Paralympics. For those of us who call Vancouver home, it’s pretty much back to business as usual. The Games may have taken seven years to plan but the tear down was amazingly efficient! That being said, traces of the Games remain – the blue volunteer jackets are still very much in evidence, the new Canada Line to the airport is part of the daily commute and the Olympic Oval is now a community sport centre.
But the question I have for you today is: What are the legacies of the PARALYMPIC GAMES? What could they be? What should they be?
Here’s a bit of background info to get you thinking.
In the context of the Olympics and other mega sporting events, the concept of legacies is not new. Successful bid committees are those who are able to demonstrate that their hosting of the event will have a positive impact on the host community in terms of social legacies, environmental legacies and economic legacies. For example, the organizers of the 2012 London Games claim their event will result in the creation of one of the largest urban parks in Europe, the development of new housing for key workers such as teachers and nurses, the expansion and improvement of the London transit system and a myriad of other legacies related to culture, sport, volunteering, business and tourism (London 2012). Additionally, host societies make a commitment to the brand. They agree to promote the values of the Olympic movement and strive for the ‘best games ever’ and their legacy (theoretically at least) is to ensure the continued prestige of the event and set the bar high for future hosts
But identifying what legacies are specific to the Paralympic Games is a far more difficult task. First of all, since the signing of the ‘One bid, one city’ agreement between the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee, there is now one host responsible for both events. While this agreement has many interesting consequences (which we look forward to exploring in future blog posts!), the one I am interested in discussing today is how this arrangement impacts what we consider the legacies of the Paralympic Games. With this decision, effectively ALL legacies are Paralympic legacies… and simultaneously NO legacies can be directly attributed to the Paralympics. For example, hosting a Paralympic Games certainly results in the construction of more accessible facilities (a considerable amount of time and money was spent in Vancouver making sure all the new facilities had level entries and designated seating for wheelchair users). But should it really take a Paralympics to ensure that buildings are being built to accessibility standards? Shouldn’t these same considerations apply when building any arena or stadium? If Vancouver hosted only the Olympic Games, would these facilities not be accessible?
Some would argue that the legacy of a Paralympic Games is in challenging perceptions about disability and what people with a disability are capable of doing. Theoretically this should lead to less discrimination and increased opportunities for people with a disability – for example, more employers may be more inclined to hire a person with a disability. However, there is very little evidence-based research indicating that this actually happens. How do we measure ‘less discrimination’?
Finally, changing attitudes among the general public is one thing but what are the effects of hosting a Paralympic Games on people with a disability? Can we make the argument that watching a Paralympic athlete may inspire other individuals with a disability to try a sport or become more active? Certainly when promoting the benefits of hosting an Olympic Games there is a lot of rhetoric around what this will do for the nation’s youth. I personally took up rowing after watching Silken Laumann compete in 1992 at the Olympics – maybe there is a young amputee out there who watched Lauren Woolstencroft win her five golds and decided to take up skiing?
But are we leaving Paralympic legacies up to chance rather than strategically planning for outcomes? Are we making the assumption that hosting the Paralympics is a ‘good thing’ and confusing the feel good moment that comes from watching someone achieving his/her dream with real strides forward in the broader struggle for equal rights and equal access?
And so I ask you – what do you see as the legacy (actual or hoped for!) of the Paralympic Games?
Note: For those interested in further reading there’s a new book on the market addressing exactly this topic! Paralympic Legacies is edited by David Legg (president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee) and Keith Gilbert (Director of the Centre for Disability, Sport and Health at the University of East London) and is available at Amazon.
I have to say I am really enjoying reading and thinking about the ideas presented here. I’m learning alot and it’s raising my own awareness. I really appreciate that!
Having been involved in the Games as a Blue Jacket and Paralympic Torchbearer, I was struck by how committed the organizing committees of both the Olympics and Paralympics were to making the 2010 games inclusive. People with disabilities were highly visible during the Games, not just as Paralympic athletes or performers at the ceremonies but also as volunteers.
The theme of the Paralympic Games was “One Inspires Many” and I think that as a country and as a province, we embraced that and set the bar really high with the example we set for equality and inclusion. Last year, I was on the website for England’s 2012 Summer Games and I was really excited to see that they were actively seeking volunteers with disabilities.
While this is encouraging, my own experience as an active life-time volunteer is that not all large scale events have the same level of awareness about disability. For example, when applying to volunteer online, I have found that there’s nowhere provided on the electronic forms to add comments to identify myself as someone who many need slight accomodations in order to serve. I find this incredibly frustrating. What I usually do is send a seperate email off to whatever contact email address I can find, outlining my position. It’s entirely hit and miss as to whether the person in charge of volunteers even sees it, much less makes the effort to help.
I find it stressful because sometimes I will get a response, but am told that the onus is on me to keep telling different people in the chain of command what I need. Fair enough, but as I work my way along, I am usually told by a number of people that it’s not possible to be accomodated, even though they’ve known about it since the beginning of the application process. Sometimes I get lucky and am able to work it out once I am at the actual event and sometimes not and I just muddle through. Really, it shouldn’t be this hard. I wish I could figure out a way to make things easier, not just for me, but for anyone with a disability, but right now I am at a loss. I believe our challenge is to continue that work with the same energy and enthusiasm we showed the world during the Paralympics to create communities where opportunities to contribute in meaningful ways exist for everyone.
Oh and while I’m at it, I thought that I would mention this:
A study conducted by UBC on the impact of the Olympic Games, found that Canadian Employers are 25% more likely to hire people with disabilities as a direct result of the favourable impressions of the 2010 Games. (This was info presented to me via the 10×10 project, (an intiative whose goal was to see 10% more people with disabilities employed in 2010) while I was writing a speech I gave as a guest speaker at the Tri-Cities Celebration of Ability in December 2010.)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Lalainia! That’s the idea behind this blog – make a post to get the discussion going and then encourage others to share their opinions and draw on their personal experiences to further explore the topic. I think you raise some excellent points – certainly the Paralympic Games provide increased opportunities for athletes with a disability to compete but the role of spectators and volunteers with a disability is often overlooked. Your story about volunteering and the onus being on you to explain your situation reminds me of an article by David Howe, Paralympian and sport sociologist. Howe wrote about his experiences attending the Athens Paralympics as a journalist and finding out that the newsroom was not at all accessible! Apparent no one ever considered the possibility that those there to report on the Games may themselves have impairments – and this is at the Paralympics!
And I’m glad you brought up the study from UBC – several of my classmates and professors were involved. From what I understand it was the first time the Olympic Impact survey included questions specific to the Paralympic Games (which I think is brilliant!). But I think even the researchers realize the questions were a little limited. If I have this correct they surveyed the general Canadian public and asked them if they would be more likely to hire a person with a disability now that they had been exposed to the Paralympic Games. But how many of the people surveyed are actually in a position to hire anyone? It’s a hypothetical question for a hypothetical situation. It’s great to hear that 25 percent said they would be more likely to hire someone with a disability but what I would actually like to see is a survey of people with a disability living in Canada that asks if they have seen changes in how they are treated since the Paralympic Games. Or some data showing that employment rates have increased. It’s a nice first step but….
I agree, measuring the impact of the Paralympic games is difficult. Have we really seen any tangible change locally, provincially or federally as a direct result? I’d be interested in seeing the results of the kinds of specific polls you mentioned.
I am stunned that even the Paralympics in Athens had a hard time anticipating and providing for the needs of people with disabilities. I wonder if the Games hires a consultant or has a panel to address and plan for these kinds of things? If they don’t, I think they should. I’d be interested in reading Mr. Howe’s article, if you have a link.
I think the 2010 Games did an excellent job is planning for accessability issues for spectators. What I saw was alot of information being shared about venue specific ameneties (accessable security tents, venue entrances, elevators, washrooms, viewing locations, ear phones for discriptive broadcasting for the visually imapired, etc.) with volunteers so they were best able to assist spectators with a disability and make sure they were comfortable. At the Stadium, they provided a number of golf cart shuttles for anyone with a mobility issue (cane, crutches, walker) to ride from the security tents at the entrance, down to Gate E, which was the accessable entrance. I saw these being used alot and the people they served were really grateful for the assistance.
They also devoted a large part of the training manuals we got towards educating volunteers about the most appropriate ways to assist and interact positively with someone who has a disability. I was really impressed by that.
It might interest you to know that at the time that I applied for the Olympics & Paralympics, I chose not to disclose my illness or disability. I struggled with whether or not I felt this would impact the experience I might have and in the end, I believe it would have. I was granted a rare opportunity that required me to be fully mobile, so I found a workable solution on my own and never said a word to anyone about the challenges I faced. It made things incredibly challenging for me physically, but given the same choice again, I believe I would make the exact same decision. The bottom line was that I wanted to be the one to determine what I could and couldn’t do. I didn’t want anyone else making choice for me, based on assumptions that really should be mine to make. I’m sure anyone with a disability could understand that. (Of course I am completely understating and simplifying, but the gist is that making the choice to disclose or not disclose a disability is difficult, even in a work or volunteer environment that seems more open and accepting.)
Hi Lelainia – I can’t share the article online due to copyright laws (it’s a particularly hot topic at the universities right now…) but the article is called ‘From inside the newsroom: Paralympic media and the ‘production’ of elite disability’ – it was published in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport vol. 43 iss. 2 in 2008. Your library may be able to access it online. However, you may be interested in reading David Howe’s book – he references his experience at the Athens games in a few of the chapters and it’s a great read if you’re interested in the history of the Paralympic movement along with a social critique of the Games. You can find it at http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0415288878.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us! I think you make an excellent point about the training – one of the supposed legacies of hosting an Olympics/Paralympics is the creation of a trained and educated volunteer workforce that will ideally take the skills learned as Games volunteers and use them to volunteer for future events or transfer those skills to the workplace. Certainly a greater awareness of accessibility issues can only be a good thing for our city!
Thanks for the info. I will look for the book-I am sure I can find it. Looking forward to future topics-I’ll be checking in often!