On March 5, 1994, Philippe Croizon was 25 years old. He was about to move and decided to get his TV antenna back. He was electrocuted. Doctors fought to save him, and had to amputate all four of his limbs. After months of rehabilitation, he began a new life as a disabled person, a top athlete, and a fan of the craziest challenges. Swimming across the English Channel; winning the bet to swim between the five continents; setting a depth record for a quadruple amputee; and the Paris-Dakar.
Acceptance of one’s disability
But before that, there was the phase of accepting his handicap: “After the accident, it took me ten years to get back on my feet and go through the five stages of grief on my couch”. In his head, he is “died March 5, 1994“, and everything he experiences today,”it’s more.” “Sure, it was hard, it was violent for ten years and I even wanted to end my life twice. But today, I love my life. It is rich, it is wealthy, it is powerful.“… Son leitmotiv : “Everything is possible, everything is possible to those who dare. It’s just our fear and our doubt that hold us back.”
How society views people who are “otherwise capable”
Accepting one’s disability is already not an easy thing. But society still needs to look at people differently.”capable otherwise” as he so rightly says. And rightly so the paralympic games can contribute to this: “We are in the process of giving the second slap that we needed so that our society evolves a little more in the direction of people with disabilities. Because the word disability is a load of crap.”… “We are citizens like everyone else and incidentally disabled”… “it is cultural to be afraid of disability and for disabled people to be afraid of the able-bodied world. So we have two worlds that look at each other, two universes and which are afraid of each other.“
Getting around, fitting into life, or an obstacle course?
So yes, the Paralympic Games may be able to help society change its outlook. But another problem arises for people with disabilities, that of accessibility: “There are political announcements and the reality of life. And the reality of the city, of the political announcement that is made: we are 1000 light years away and above all there are many, many people who have requested exemptions.”
The inclusion of people with disabilities also involves employment…** For Philippe Croizon, since the 2005 law, disability really exists but managers still have “this fear of disability” because “they have never been confronted with disability: all they have been sold in terms of disability is Cosette and Thénardier”…
