From
The AP. In the picture, a door frame raised from the floor lies across an entrance to wheelchair
seating at the Bolshoy Ice Dome at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
SOCHI, Russia — After $51 billion, it should be easy to get around at the Olympics — for everyone.
Organizers have
repeatedly touted accessibility for people with disabilities as one of
the chief lasting benefits of hosting the Winter Games in Sochi. But
with less than three weeks until the Paralympics, infrastructure around
Olympic Park and its venues are not entirely barrier-free.
Wheelchair
access ramps at Laura Cross-country Ski & Biathlon Center aren't
easily visible, while stairs for walking access are steep and icy. Door
frames raised from the floor are all over the venues, including doorways
leading into lower seating areas and wheelchair seating at Bolshoy Ice
Dome.
Wheelchair lifts at some
of the hotels being used for the games only work on one side of the
stairs — and instructions are provided only in English. One trailer with
two restrooms for people with disabilities outside the Iceberg Skating
Palace doubles as a storage closet, filled with janitorial supplies and a
large trash can.
As the world
saw when the Olympics opened Feb. 7, not everything is finished or
polished — there are certainly hurdles for people with disabilities.
Nearly
1,500 athletes are coming to the Paralympics right after the Olympics.
It's a much smaller scale than the games happening now, but in a country
that's never hosted the Paralympics before. Despite preparations for
years, issues remain for an infrastructure that won't be fully tested
until athletes from the 43 countries and their supporters arrive. The
Paralympics, starting March 7, include 72 events in fives sports over 10
days.
Ahead of that, people
strolling around Olympic Park with wheelchairs, walking sticks, crutches
or other aids have been difficult to find during the Sochi Games.
Walkways are often blocked by cable protectors that create awkward bumps
5 or 6 inches off the ground. In many places, ramps are simple sheets
of thin plywood, not always flush with the ground and almost always
added on to the structures they connect rather than being built in
during initial construction.
Arly
Velasquez, an Alpine ski Paralympian for Mexico and analyst for Claro
Sports, said buses are accessible to those in wheelchairs but drivers
frequently don't know how to use the lifts, forcing him to either
demonstrate himself or wait for another bus. And when he arrived at his
hotel one night, the wheelchair lift leading to his room wasn't working,
so he had to improvise by strapping himself to his chair with a belt,
he said.
"I just put my computer on the top of the stairs," he said, "and I just climbed with the hands."
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'A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION'
Craig Spence, spokesman for the International Paralympics
Committee, said the problems "are totally relevant but hopefully they'll
be ironed out before the Paralympics start."
All venues for the
games and infrastructure have been built in accordance with an IPC
accessibility guide, he said. The issues themselves, Spence said, are a
sign of how far Russia has come since winning the games seven years ago.
"That the lift is there in the first place ... is a step in the right direction," Spence said.
A
smooth run is key to long-term plans for the games to encourage more
access for people with disabilities throughout Russia. The last time the
nation hosted the Olympics in 1980, it refused to stage the
Paralympics, saying the country did not have people with disabilities.
Evgeniy
Bukharov, head of the Paralympic Integration Department for the Sochi
2014 Organizing Committee, said he is confident the venues and the
athletes' villages are fully accessible for athletes, spectators and
families. Organizers plan to transition from the current games to the
Paralympics by adding more seating capacity, transportation and pathways
for people with disabilities, he says.
Organizers produced a
104-page handbook detailing the accessibility features throughout
Olympic and Paralympic venues —including the biathlon center — plus
hotels and key transit hubs. And staff is planned at each venue to
handle complaints on access issues and find problems that need fixing.
In some areas, like ski venues, more personnel are planned in places
where accessible infrastructure wasn't practical, Bukharov said.
Organizers
have been trying to work with developers, construction companies and
fire officials, among others, to prioritize accessibility issues while
meeting their needs. Raised door frames, for example, are required in
some areas by fire officials so air can't get under the door, he said.
Bukharov
said bus drivers for the games were hired relatively last-minute but
will train more for the Paralympics on using lifts on buses.
"I
hope that these games will be very convenient for people with
disabilities, particularly for athletes, because everything was built to
create a good atmosphere to support them to achieve that (high) level
in competition," Bukharov said.
Russian
officials have made an effort in recent years to make transport and
public buildings accessible to people with disabilities. Some metro
stations have lifts or ramps for people in wheelchairs but the
application is scattered. Public buses are built low to the ground, but
often have no lifts and are therefore not accessible to people with
disabilities traveling without assistance.
As recently as September, a
Human Rights Watch report said the more than 13 million people with
disabilities in Russia have significant barriers in trying to go about
daily life. As a result, they rarely leave home.
Disability rights
researcher Andrea Mazzarino, who wrote the report, said people in
Russia generally want to help those with disabilities but often suggest
personal help rather than infrastructure changes that would allow people
with impediments to get around on their own. "It sort of reflects this
idea that it's not important and it's not expedient to allow people to
use public services independently."
___
THE BIGGEST TEST
The
IPC did an audit of the Sochi venues in January, Spence says, and it
plans to assess the situation on the ground at the venues when staff
begin to arrive Friday, suggesting changes as needed. "We're not
expecting too many surprises," he said.
But he acknowledged that
the biggest test of any infrastructure comes when people using it
arrive. And, he said, guests shouldn't have the same expectations
outside of Olympic Park, despite the strides Russia has made.
"Outside
the venues, there will be some issues," he said. "You can't change an
entire city in the seven years that you go from winning the games to
hosting the games."
Hundreds
of buses with disability access used around Olympic venues, for example,
are expected to be put to use around the country after the games end,
Spence said.
But Mazzarino
said Russians haven't seen improvements so far. "Residents outside the
tourist zone have not benefited significantly," she said.
Officials
for several national Paralympic organizations declined comment, saying
they would get impressions of Sochi on site when they arrived. Tiina
Kivisaari, secretary general of Finland's Paralympic Committee, said the
country's staff and athletes didn't notice any serious problems during
visits over the last year, but almost everything was under construction.
"From our Olympic team, we
have heard that there's been some problems, e.g., with elevators, but we
still trust and hope that villages, venues, etc., will be accessible
when (the) Paralympic Games start," she said in an email.
Things
visually look accessible in Sochi, but aren't as practical as they
seem, Velasquez said. He said he's been able to make things work,
navigating ramps that lead to dead ends or stairs and doing wheelies to
get over cable protectors.
"I
can do that, but not all of the wheelchair users can do it," Velasquez
said. "I can do it because I am an athlete and also because this chair
is very good, but not all of the people will have this kind of
wheelchair."
Athletes, he said, want to be independent.
"More
than anything, you're just looking to do things by yourself," Velasquez
said. "You don't strive to be depending on someone else because it just
takes time and just takes someone to be there."
