Post Commentary on the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games - Observations on Disability, Access and Legacy

In a slight divergence from accessible tourism research, this article creates a series of links to commentary on the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It was certainly a fascinating period for disability, access and accessible tourism brought about by a major sport event. The interdependent and overlapping nature of the areas that we work mean that there are always opportunities for cross promoting equity, diversity and sustainability. While I enjoyed the spectacle, I was actively involved in writing a series of articles about alternative perspectives on the games themselves, sport participation for people with disability, equity in the Paralympic games and what I titled the dark side of the Paralympics (cheating).

• Getting to the starting line at the Paralympics: easier for some than others
• Doping, boosting and other forms of cheating at the Paralympics
• Beyond the Paralympics: where to the disability sport in Australia?

While from a distance the elite athletes were incredibly well taken care of, broke a myriad of world records and were watched by a sell-out crowds, there was still a number of serious issues of discrimination from the perspective of spectators. The most noted of these were issues that involved segregated seating policies, segregated ticket booking policies and the inability to seat a man and his guide dog in a premium seat location - articles and links below.

• Paralympics rules 'make disabled feel nonhuman': here after wheelchair user parents are told they cannot sit with families at event
• Paralympic tickets rip-off: wheelchair users forced to call high cost phone line as able-bodied can simply buy online
• Games jobsworth bars ex-minister Blunkett from Paralympic opening ceremony because of his guide dog

The only good thing about the guide dog incident was that the authorities were just as discriminatory towards VIPs as they work towards the general public as the person involved was an ex-member of the British Parliament! How could these basic considerations in the service blueprint that was a case of foreseeable customer service failure happen at the games that did everything else so well? 

On an accessible tourism front there were some good news stories about some very accessible experiences for those people lucky enough to make it to the games were a local Londoner and Paralympic games swimming medallist Andy Gilbert offers his favourite accessible places to visit.

• Paralympic games 2012: top 10 accessible days out in London

Figure 1: London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Evaluation Framework (UK Department of Sport, Media and Culture, 2009)

Now the challenge for London is to live up to the hype of legacy planning. Hopefully accessible tourism will be one of the legacy outcomes from the games. However, this won't just eventuate and requires strategic planning and resourcing. London has become the first Olympic and Paralympic games to extensively plan for impacts and legacy evaluation through an extensive framework shown in Figure 1 (UK Department for Culture Media and Sport, 2009). Unlike the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which only started to plan for legacy some years after the games had finished (Cashman, 2006; Cashman & Darcy, 2008; Darcy & Appleby, 2011), only time will tell as to what the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be and how well it is evaluated.

References

Cashman, R. (2006). The bitter-sweet awakening: the legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games: Walla Walla Press in conjunction with the Australian Centre for Olympic Studies, University of Technology, Sydney.

Cashman, R., & Darcy, S. (Eds.). (2008). Benchmark Games: The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. Petersham, NSW Australia: Walla Walla Press in conjunction with the Australian Centre for Olympic Studies.
Darcy, S., & Appleby, L. (2011). Sydney 2000: Moving from Post-Hoc Legacy to Strategic Vision and Operational Partnership. In D. Legg & K. Gilbert (Eds.), Paralympic Legacies (pp. 75-98). Champaign, IL USA: Common Ground Publishing LLC.

UK Department for Culture Media and Sport. (2009). London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Impacts and Legacy Evaluation Framework: Final Report   Retrieved from http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/files/DCMS_Olympic_Evaluation_final_report.pdf

English Tourism Awards recognise accessible tourism and the spillover effect from the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics

The English tourism awards have identified the exceptional performance being made in accessible tourism over the last few years. In particular, they identify the University of Leeds Access for All developments that have provided the infrastructure for the Canadian Paralympic wheelchair rugby team to stay, train and enjoy the accessible and inclusive environment.

http://www.incentivetravel.co.uk/awards/6822-englands-finest-set-to-battle-it-out-at-2012-tourism-awards-

This type of initiative builds on the excellent work of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games Legacy Now Program that specifically identified accessible tourism as one of the targeted outcomes of games planning and execution. One outcome has been the integration of accessible tourism within the Tourism Vancouver website. The website goes on to integrate a series of accessible tourism resources. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Tourism Australia's website that has stripped all reference to accessible tourism over the last 18 months except to suggest two other organisations to contact - http://www.australia.com/plan/before-you-go/useful-tips.aspx.

Photo 1: Tourism Vancouver welcoming tourists with disability Source: http://www.tourismvancouver.com/vancouver/accessible-vancouver/

London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games organisers have certainly sought to build upon the Beijing 2008 games, which provided an excellent accessible games experience but not necessarily an ongoing legacy of access or accessible tourism. London's approach to legacy has been at the forefront of their discussions from the involvement of youth through to the integration of disability in all aspects of the Olympics and Paralympics. Of course, legacy is a consideration that is best judged long after the games is finished and let's hope London seize their opportunity and create a lasting legacy of accessibility long into the future.

http://www.london2012.com/legacy-after-the-games

Academically legacy has only been the subject of substantive research over the last decade. A major paper on conceptualising and measuring mega-sport event legacies is Preuss' (2007) "Cube" conceptualisation that examines planned/unplanned, negative/positive, and tangible/intangible dimensions of legacy. Preuss' conceptualisations drew on the major event legacy literature but without reference to Paralympic or disability related major events. In developing the conceptualisation of legacies for major events, Dickson, Benson & Blackman (2011) extended Preuss' conceptualisation through considering Olympic and Paralympic legacy by including timeframe together with planning, tangibility, spread of impact and magnitude of the effect. These conceptualisations were then measured by the components of economics, sports participation, infrastructure, environmental, urban renewal, transport and volunteer/social capital using a radar or spiders web graphic. The inclusion of the fledgeling Paralympic legacy literature has provided another dimension to the social legacies of mega sporting events. The Paralympic legacy literature has recently been supplemented through the publication of Legg & Gilbert's (2011) book aptly titled Paralympic Legacies.

References

Dickson, T. J., Benson, A. M., & Blackman, D. A. (2011). Developing a framework for evaluating Olympic and Paralympic legacies. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 16(4), 285-302.

Legg, D., & Gilbert, K. (Eds.). (2011). Paralympic Legacies. Champaign, IL USA: Commonground Publishing.

Preuss, H. (2007). The conceptualisation and measurement of mega sport event legacies. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 12(3), 207-228.