Since the start of the Olympic Games, Ndieme Lame has commuted to the Stade de France every day, where she volunteers to help visitors orient themselves. The 57-year-old wheelchair user is amazed at how easy it is to cross the city and get to the Olympic Stadium using public transport.
“I never believed I could make it here almost alone,” she said Wednesday after her hour-and-a-half commute from her home in southern Paris.
Her daily commute underscores the city’s efforts to improve accessibility for people with disabilities ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. An online system that allows her to book assistance at S-Bahn stations has been particularly helpful, Lame said.
But challenges remain, particularly in the subway system, where most stations are not fully wheelchair accessible. And Lame wonders whether station assistants will still be there after the Paralympics, which begin barely two weeks after the Olympics end.
“At the moment people are taking care of us, but after September the daily struggle will start all over again,” she said.
On Wednesday, AP journalists accompanied Lame as she traveled from her home in Porte de Versailles in southwest Paris to the Stade de France in Saint Denis, a northern suburb of the French capital.
Dressed in the teal attire of the Paris 2024 volunteers, Lame, who was diagnosed with polio at 11 months old, slipped through the automatic door and took the elevator down to the street. From there, a short ride along the sidewalk in her motorized wheelchair took her to the nearest tram stop, which she reached via a smooth concrete ramp.
“So far, so good,” she said as she joined commuters on the crowded T3 line, which runs along the Périphérique, the ring road that separates Paris from the outskirts. Other passengers made room for her wheelchair in the middle of the car.
At Cité-Universitaire station, Lame changed to an RER suburban train. A station employee helped her use an elevator to take her to the platform. Another station employee put a ramp on the platform so she could board the train.
The process is straightforward but not always reliable, said Lame.
“Sometimes the websites say the elevator is running, but it turns out it’s not,” she says, forcing her to regularly take detours, causing significant delays.
According to IDF Mobilité, the regional public transport regulator, 53 of the 162 elevators in all train and subway stations in the Paris region were undergoing maintenance on Wednesday.
After getting off the train at Plaine Saint-Denis station, Lame made her way to the Stade de France in her wheelchair.
“I was afraid of being late the whole time,” she said.
One of the biggest obstacles for wheelchair users at the Stade de France is access to the stadium via the Passerelle de l’Ecluse, a pedestrian bridge that has stairs but no elevator.
Hugues Valet, a 26-year-old aspiring para-triathlete who loses the use of his legs after a car accident, was surprised to have an assistant help him up the stairs when he and his cousin arrived at the stadium to watch the running event.
“When I saw these stairs from a distance, I was pretty upset and told my little cousin that we would have to turn around and make a big detour to find another access point,” said Valet. “I’m pretty stunned at how we’re being taken care of.”
Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, praised the city’s efforts to make surface transit more accessible, but noted the frustration many feel with other parts of the public transit system, particularly the century-old subway system, where 93 percent of stations remain inaccessible or only partially accessible to wheelchair users.
“When the metro system was built in Paris over a century ago, people with disabilities were completely excluded and treated as second-class citizens,” said Parsons. “I understand the level of frustration, but I want to look at the glass as half full and reflect on where we have been, where we are and where we will be.”
When the Paralympics begin on August 28, the focus in Paris will not only be on the athletes, but also on the city itself – its achievements in accessibility and the gaps that still need to be bridged.
Paris has made significant investments in improving accessibility since it was awarded the 2017 Summer Olympics. The city boasts that 100% of its bus and tram lines are now wheelchair accessible, and €125 million has been allocated to support these efforts. City Hall has also invested in the creation of 17 “improved accessibility districts,” where public facilities and shops are equipped with ramps, tactile strips and designated parking spaces for people with disabilities.
“The idea was to radically transform the city,” said Lamia El Aaraje, deputy mayor of Paris and responsible for accessibility, on Thursday. “And I think we are keeping our promise.”
