What does it mean when the Paralympic Games come to town?

The Paralympic Games in Paris have set new standards on several levels: the number of countries participating with athletes has never been higher and the attention from the media has never been greater. On DR, for example, you could follow every single day on both DR TV and live on TV.

Politiken, too, has been reporting from the Games every single day.

We cannot yet say anything tangible about whether the citizens of Paris will feel a PL effect going forward. And columnist at Politiken, Caspar Eric, has also written critically about the city's access to, among other things, Denmark's wheelchair rugby matches.

But with the previous hosts in both London and Barcelona, it has been quite real to see how the participation of the Games in the cities has made a lasting difference for the locals in the host cities.

This is stated by Camilla Ryhl, Director of Research at the Bevica Foundation.

“London has changed its infrastructure. You can see it especially in the public transport system. We all know that you have an old tube system in London, which makes it difficult to make it perfect. In fact, many solutions have been made that are lasting. And they have since continued to work on them and integrated them into everything they have done since.”

She further points to Londoners changing views of people with disabilities in relation to PL, with a 30 per cent increase in the positive attitude of English people before and after PL.

She attributes this effect to the visibility that PL brings with it in the media and in the streetscape in general. Therefore, it is also positive that the media in Denmark are betting more on PL this year than in the past.

This is the opinion of Marianne Kofoed, Director of the Bevica Foundation.

“It's really been great to see how several media outlets have picked up the gauntlet and reported from PL in Paris. Visibility means a lot, as we have seen in previous PPL, when we as a society need to become aware of our blind spots towards, for example, people with disabilities.”

The Bevica Foundation, together with Muskelvindfonden and Egmont Højskolen, organized a fan zone party in connection with Denmark's first game against France in wheelchair rugby. In addition to the fantastic atmosphere and lots of happy students from Egmont High School, Camilla Ryhl was on the tarmac to talk about how universal design plays a crucial role in how to reach the goal of embracing a wide body diversity in athletes and audiences for a PL.