The Paralympics : A celebration of elite sport but also a false dawn.

As I watched David Weir come home for Gold in the 1500m last week from the Disabled seating in the Olympic stadium, I got carried away.  I thought that Disabled sport had finally come home to the recognition of the British public and certainly the record ticket sales and Channel Four’s superb unprecedented coverage suggest this is so.  However, I seemed to be not the only one carried away downstream by this rush of enthusiasm.

The Paralympics seemed to have contracted the obsession with legacy from its bigger well known cousin the Olympics.  As we were all glued to the sport on Channel 4 other media outlets, particularly the BBC, seemed to be trying to compensate by tackling what they deemed to be the single generic topic labelled ‘Disability’. 

The discussion of legacy of the Paralympics seems to be different from that of the Olympics which was excellently foreseen by the comic premonition of the BBC sitcom Twenty Twelve.  In the case of the Paralympics the media debate is not obsessed with the legacy of Disabled sport and increasing participation, but instead is overly concerned with the long-lasting effects of the games on the lives of Disabled people in the UK. 

Even as events got underway on the first day of competition, Thursday 30^th August, BBC Radio 5Live had a phone-in that asked if the Paralympics would change attitudes to Disabled people.  Immediately detracting away from the elite sport and burdening the event with a massive emphasis on possible social change that supposedly might have occurred at the end of the eleven days.

One of the first callers to 5Live on that opening day was a lady, whose Disabled daughter’s co-worker said to their boss that he would no longer hold open the door to the accessible toilet for her. Although, the case might seem shockingly petty my question is this – Was the Paralympics a serious sporting event or an opportunity for a lazy if well-intentioned rebalancing of things by the media? A media guilty for years of misrepresenting Disabled people and their vast diversity of experience.  I personally don’t see any connection between David Weir, starting out on a gruelling Paralympic campaign, and some non-disabled person not holding open a door for his Disabled work colleague in some random office.  Nor do I think Weir’s amazing four gold medals that we witnessed in the eleven days that followed, will make any difference to the non-disabled office worker in the toilet door controversy. 

It seems to me that asking the question will the Paralympics improve the lives of Disabled people is like posing the question will Mo Farah’s Olympic double reduce the rate of racist attacks in the street? 

If a member of a social minority achieves sporting greatness emancipation for every other member of that minority, with their differing education, economic prospects and personalities, does not necessarily follow.  However, this blatantly obvious point is not my main concern.  I instead suggest that the media posing such an ill-thought out question is a major problem. 

Another caller to 5Live who was visually impaired since birth claimed that a lot of Disabled people had a “woe is me attitude” and therefore didn’t help themselves. I yet again sat there listening wondering what on earth that had to do with the Paralympics.  Mind you I am aware that the Disabled population of the world is vast and while some are elite athletes, some may well be drowning in a thick pea soup of self-pity while millions may not conform to either of the above. This attempt to define both how ‘Disabled people’ are treated and how they behave is an extreme exercise in reductionism.

On the night of the opening ceremony Newsnight asked exactly the same question to a panel of Disabled people, as it happened all women. The panel was made up by comedian Francesca Martinez, actress and model Shannon Murray, ex-Paralympic basketball player …with VT contributions from the broadcaster Liz Carr and Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson. The conversation lead by Kirsty Wark soon veered quickly from sport, with only a cursory mention of the Paralympics, into the ever increasingly clichéd topic of the way Disabled people are treated by the general public; before turning sharply again to touch on government cuts to services, and finally flirting quickly with disability hate crime. It was for all the world like the producers on Newsnight said to themselves “Ah while we’ve got the ramps set up we might as well pack in a few issues we wouldn’t normally cover”.

The way government cuts will affect Disabled people is an important and complex debate, which no doubt needs to be aired, as does the very concerning rise in Disabled hate crime. However again I ask the question what on earth do these issues have to do with the opening of the 2012 Paralympic games. When they awkwardly seguewayed between the debates Newsnight showed contempt for the very serious separate issues they tried to cram in, but also contempt for the second largest multi sport event in the world. The array of Disabled comedians and actors making up the panel no doubt had very valuable personal experiences of disability, but surely they weren’t all experts in the field of benefits or Disabled hate crime. Although on the VTs Dame Tanni Grey Thompson and Liz Carr made considered comments about the possible cultural impact of the Paralympics, these too were lost within the noise of the general meandering vague debate about everything ‘Disabled’.

These examples of BBC programmes echoed statements from David Cameron just before the closing ceremony, and other dignitaries that the games had changed the perception of Disabled people. The news media and the political elite make these statements like they have no control over the generalised stereotypes that exist in the public consciousness. In this way the meaning makers of our society wash their hands of the great power and influence they have over the national agenda and place the job of more accurate representation in the lap of the Paralympics. As if the knowledge that some amputees can sprint at incredible speeds, will be the sudden wake up call for the public to identify and work to eradicate inequalities that various Disabled people face.

The reality is that Disabled people and non-disabled people have lived, worked and have been in relationships together for decades. The narrative that Weir’s, Simmonds’ and Peacock’s great sporting achievements, have somehow introduced for the first time the idea that Disabled people are actually real human beings is absurd. Even before we were all gripped by the wheelchair rugby and sitting volleyball, non-disabled people had encountered Disabled people every day and there was not always an unbearable awkwardness between the two parties.

The Paralympics may have shifted somewhat the balance of media imagery away from the portrayal of tragic victims for a while, however the inequalities that Disabled people suffer, are deeply entrenched within our society’s institutions, language, and culture. These inequalities affect Disabled people differently to varying degrees and have been re-enforced by years of behaviour. Therefore the concept of “attitudes to Disabled people” is not a fixed phenomenon and makes the question of  the Paralympics changing “attitudes” a ridiculous one.       

          
         Personally my favourite misguided quote that came from this constant murmur intent on attributing greater social importance to the games was from a Paralympian herself.  Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the name of this sage but she said on 5Live that she had seen a lot of Disabled spectators at the Olympic Park and this was great because they could see what it was possible to achieve.  Now I attended three separate Paralympic events, and I am indeed disabled, however I was well aware of my potential to achieve many things in my life before visiting Stratford and cannot report that a great revelation came to me while sitting in the Aquatics Centre.
        
          I loved the Paralympics, it was great sport and great entertainment, but not some great instrument of social change.  Sadly things are just a touch more complex than that however much the media and politicians may suggest otherwise. The 2012 Paralympic Games were a great success, maybe Disability Sport has come home, certainly they were a gripping final instalment of our great British summer of sport.