That day, Yohann Beutier “didn’t believe it”. In order to attend a football match in Maine-et-Loire, the young man – and his 200kg wheelchair – were carried by security guards. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to get past the obstacle of the stairs in this sports venue.
“At the time, I thought, ‘They’re not going to carry the wheelchair with me in it, are they?'” says Yohann, who has been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy since birth. Even in hindsight, he remembers “the stress, annoyance and incomprehension” that assailed him that day.
“It was quite dangerous but at that time there was no other way to get to the stadium: there was no other access more suitable for wheelchairs,” explains the young man from Nozay (Loire-Atlantique).
Half of the equipment inaccessible
This is unfortunately far from an isolated case. According to the latest figures from Ministry of Sportsout of more than 150,000 sports facilities listed, only 51.67% are accessible to people with motor disabilities (PSHM) – according to the declarations of their owner.
By following his team all over France, Rémi Mousset has also noticed that a good number of the facilities are still not adapted for people with reduced mobility (PRM). Suffering from a congenital orphan genetic disease, this fervent supporter of FC Nantes has only been using a manual wheelchair since his adolescence.
“In some places, especially in the Île-de-France region or in the east of the country, it’s okay,” explains the 38-year-old. “But from one city to another, there can be big differences, it’s quite random.”
“Even when it is accessible in certain stadiums, the spectator experience is not good at all and we find ourselves at the edge of the pitch, in terms of the view which is really not great,” he laments.
Rémi Mousset also regrets that he almost never gets to enjoy the match alongside his team’s other supporters. Most of the time, he watches the match in a private airlock, away from the rest of the spectators. “And yes, even in the world of football where there is a lot of money, there are still problems,” he sums up.
The adapted ground, not the changing rooms…
The situation is no better for people with reduced mobility who want to play a sport. After more than 10 years of competitive para table tennis, Rémi Mousset describes “a path strewn with pitfalls”. “The rooms are not always optimal, it goes without saying,” he explains.
The athlete describes equipment often dating from “the 1970s, from the time when we built a bit of PMR furniture ‘because it had to be done’. “It wasn’t really thought out by or with the audiences concerned”, he notes. In the halls where he was able to play, the toilets or showers were not systematically accessible, which is again confirmed by the data from the Ministry of Sports.
According to the official census, only 21% of showers and 31% of toilets in French sports facilities are not accessible to people with reduced mobility (PSHM). For people with sensory disabilities – blind, visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing – only 24% of toilets in sports venues are accessible nationwide.
“Sometimes we are happy to see that they have installed PMR grab bars in the toilets,” says Rémi Mousset. “Except that we quickly become disillusioned when we discover that they have been poorly designed because they are only placed on one side, and some people can only transfer from left to right, or vice versa. “It is even more complicated when it comes to showers, if you want to find an individual or decent cubicle.”
“We would like to take a shower like everyone else”
“Because of the aging facilities, we sometimes find ourselves in absurd situations,” he sums up. Most of the time, after a day of competition, Rémi Mousset is forced to wait until he is back at his hotel to be able to shower.
“After a long day of sweating, you would like to be able to take a shower like everyone else, but that is not possible,” he explains.
Due to the lack of a sufficiently accessible changing room for him to change, he even recounts that one day he was forced to play para table tennis in jeans in a disabled sports hall during a departmental competition. “The hall was so old that we were on clay,” he recalls, disillusioned.
Difficulties confirmed by Sandra Boissard, president of the French association of professionals for accessibility for people with disabilities (AFPAPH), which represents accessibility professionals with user associations and public and private stakeholders.
For her, during a construction site, this question of PRM access must be integrated by the project managers as a separate issue in the specifications. By integrating those most concerned. Especially since “it does not necessarily cost more to design the infrastructure well from the start”, she insists;
“Saturated” gyms
Paralympic athlete Ryadh Sallem – a member of the French wheelchair rugby team at the Paris 2024 Games – raises another problem: even where communities invest in suitable structures, they are quickly stormed due to their relative scarcity. “In Île-de-France we are quite well off in this area but there is progress to be made,” assures the fifty-year-old, European champion in 2022 and 2023, to BFMTV.com
“It’s still extremely difficult to find training slots,” he says. “The gyms are full.”
“Infrastructure is not enough,” he adds. “A whole ecosystem needs to be set up, with the right trained staff.” “We can install lifts for people with reduced mobility, but if the person with the key is only there once a week, it’s useless. Similarly, we can install a seat for entering the water in swimming pools, but if the competent lifeguard isn’t there at the right time… it’s a shame.”
Ryadh Sallem hopes that the success of these Paralympic Games, which end this Sunday, September 8, will allow for the efforts already underway in the Paris region to be stepped up. “We need to harmonize this across the country so that disabled people everywhere in France are not left out of sport,” he concludes. When contacted, the Ministry of Sports did not respond to our requests.
- RMC Sport
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