Pascale Ribes and other campaigners for the rights of people with disabilities in France have an invite to meet the French president Wednesday. But because she uses a wheelchair, Ribes won't risk traveling by public transport to the conference at the presidential Elysee Palace.
Paris officials unveil a display of the Olympic rings on Trocadero plaza that overlooks the Eiffel Tower, after the vote awarding the 2024 Games to the French capital, in Paris, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017. Pascale Ribes and other campaigners for the rights of people with disabilities in France have an invite to meet the French president Wednesday. But because she uses a wheelchair, Ribes won't risk travelling by public transport to the conference at the presidential Elysee Palace.
"We really want the games to be a success," Ribes said in an Associated Press interview, but France needs "to press on the accelerator" because "a catastrophic scenario is in the offing if we don't." The looming deadlines of the July 26 to Aug. 11, 2024, Olympics and Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 Paralympics are also upping the pressure.
They pledged that 150 to 200 shuttle buses will be laid on for people who use wheelchairs and said they're aiming for a five-fold increase in Paris' flotilla of accessible taxis, from 200 to 1,000, by games-time. Other Olympic cities have done better. In Tokyo, more than 90% of the 758 subway and rail stations were already wheelchair-accessible when it hosted the Olympics in 2021. In 2012 host London, around a third of Tube stations have step-free access, meaning they're equipped with lifts, ramps and level surfaces so people with disabilities don't have to use stairs or escalators, the London Underground says.
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