Paralympics a 'catalyst for progress': French Minister for Persons with Disabilities

At the 2023 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Media and Marketing Summit that took place on Tuesday, 18 July in central Paris, Geneviève Darrieussecq, the French Minister for Persons with Disabilities, said that she believes the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be a “catalyst for progress” and expressed support for the plans her Government has to create a more inclusive society for France’s 12 million persons with disabilities.

In April of this year French President Emmanuel Macron chaired the 6th National Conference on Disability and announced that the Government was embarking on projects to improve accessibility, education, professional integration, and sport for all. The IPC praised the French Government for their push to improve the rights of persons with disabilities. 

“During this conference, we naturally discussed the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Darrieussecq said.

“The Games will be a catalyst for further progress. Their imminent organisation, but also the ambition we want to give in terms of legacy will accelerate the deployment of the measures announced at the National Disability Conference.”

The IPC Media and Marketing Summit was a day-long event attended by 210 delegates and 150 online attendees from the IPC, the International Olympic Committee, National Paralympic Committees, International Federations, commercial partners, broadcasters, social media channels, government and non-governmental organisations. 

It was focused on how all the stakeholders can ensure that Paris 2024 is the most successful Paralympic Games yet, and a range of topics were covered through a mixture of panel sessions and presentations.

In the keynote session, ‘A catalyst for change: how the City of Paris and French Government are using the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games as a game-changer event to drive inclusion for persons with disabilities’, Darrieussecq shared the platform with Pierre Rabadan, the Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Sport, Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Marie-Amélie Le Fur, President of Comité Paralympique et Sportif Français (CPSF), the French National Paralympic Committee.

The French minister thanked the IPC for organising the Summit. She described it as an “essential” conversation about the Paris Games and how they can be a lever for the practice of sport by people with disabilities. 

“In the run-up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we are paying particular attention to this issue. The 30 minutes of sport a day that are being introduced in schools are being extended to specialised establishments for children with disabilities,” she said.

Darrieussecq highlighted how the French Government is working with the CPSF to encourage the development of inclusive clubs, so people with disabilities can more easily find a sports club close to home, with trained and aware teachers.

“The aim is to reach 3,000 new accessible clubs in the regions, as part of the CPSF’s 'Inclusive Clubs' program. We also have a voluntary policy to make sport more affordable. The Pass Sport framework will be extended to disabled people up to the age of 30, enabling the most disadvantaged to benefit from a 50 euro voucher when they join a sports club. Racing blades will be better reimbursed.”

The latter idea came following encouragement from the IPC and the CPSF. In March 2022 the French government announced that they would be reducing the VAT from 20 per cent to 5.5 per cent on assistive technologies to make them more affordable for persons with disabilities. 

Darrieussecq also confirmed a desire for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to be a barrier-free event. 

“I know that the Paris 2024 organising committee is very committed to accessibility. They are doing an exemplary job at their level to ensure that this event will be an accessible one, for athletes and spectators alike.

“We're working to ensure that stadiums and the surrounding area are accessible. Spectators with disabilities need to be able to follow a seamless route throughout the event. From their arrival at stations or airports, to their accommodation and finally to their seats in the stadium. 

“To achieve this, we need to complete station accessibility, develop the shuttle bus network, and increase the number of accessible cabs to over 1,000 by 2024.”

In closing the 2023 IPC Media and Marketing Summit, Darrieussecq gave a clarion call for the Games to deliver a social legacy that will change French society forever, and one in line with an IPC strategic goal of driving impact through Para sport.

“The legacy and impact of the Games must go further. It touches on something intangible, something invisible. It touches civic values. It lies in a transformation of consciousness.

“Change for disability has to come from society as a whole, from the consciences of all citizens. It has to come from the desire to belong to a more welcoming, more responsible society.  Sport is a powerful lever for achieving this. It will be a social legacy.”

In addition to identifying Paris 2024 Games volunteers as “the best ambassadors for an idea that is dear to me: the full participation of people with disabilities in the life of our society is non-negotiable”, Darrieussecq asked those involved in media and marketing to make the Games as visible as possible.

“Your mission (in the media and marketing) is essential, and it is largely through your work that we will move toward a society that truly listens to everyone's differences and specificities. It will perceive them as an opportunity and not as a lack.

“A society renews and enriches itself through each person's differences. Differences must inspire trust, not mistrust. Difference is fruitful, and in the values of sport it brings out the best in us: solidarity, mutual aid, encouragement to excel. In the summer of 2024, I know I can count on you to take up this new challenge, to play the game... of the Games.”

After France recently hosted the Virtus Global Games in Vichy for athletes with intellectual impairment and the Paris 23 Para Athletics World Championships successfully, Darrieussecq shared a message to athletes who will gather in Paris in August 2024.

“I offer them all my encouragement and admiration. They are the ambassadors of the new society I was talking about. They are the ambassadors of an important change.”