Athens is currently hosting the world’s second-largest sporting event, the Paralympics, but moving about in Athens on a daily basis requires efforts of Olympian proportions from the disabled.
Nearly 10% of the Greek population has some form of disability, but you are not likely to meet many on the streets of Athens.
”If you want to know why you do not see disabled people in the streets here, just come out with me some time,” says Gerasimos Polis, a wheelchair user and an official at the Health and Social Security Solidarity Ministry Department for People with Special Needs.
Polis tries to get to the Metaxourgeio metro station, normally a 10-minute walk for someone who has the use of both legs. But for people who require a wheelchair, things are a little different.
Just a few metres away, he encounters his first obstacle. At one of the main intersections is a ramp Polis refers to as ”the killer”.
”If there is no one around to help me, then I can’t get down it on my own to cross the street,” he says.
Although the estimated $255-million spent on repairing sidewalks and building access ramps on Athens’s streets before the September 17 to 28 Paralympics are indeed a sign of progress, many of the ramps cannot be used as they are too steep and dangerous.
On the other side of the road, a car is parked in front of the ramp, forcing Polis to manoeuvre his wheelchair between the parked cars. He has to push his way through the traffic.
”This is our biggest problem, the cars. The lack of consideration on the part of Athenian drivers is unbelievable. They park across ramps and in parking places reserved for drivers with disabilities,” he says.
While the government has mandated new building codes and provisions for the handicapped, officials say the city is still generally inaccessible for disabled people, with most stores, banks, hotels and public services still out of bounds to wheelchairs.
”To enter a shop, I need the help of a shop assistant,” says Polis.
In the end, it took Polis 40 minutes to reach his destination.
The metro station’s elevator for the exclusive use of people with limited mobility has no ramp nearby, necessitating another detour.
Once inside the station, however, the situation greatly improves. Ticket booths are low enough for wheelchair users, as are ramps.
Buses, however, pose another set of problems. Although nearly all urban buses are equipped with a system allowing them to tilt toward the sidewalk or a ramp that opens for wheelchairs to enter and exit, neither of these methods is used.
”The sidewalks are too low and the buses can’t get close enough to them,” says one driver.
”My bus does not have a ramp, but most of those that are fitted in other buses simply don’t work or else the drivers do not want to use them.”
Polis says that while a great deal has been done in recent years to make Athens more accessible to people with disabilities — such as the creation of low public telephones and automatic teller machines, guide strips on sidewalks for the blind and changes to construction regulations for public buildings — ”a simple outing in Athens in this Olympic year shows that independence for people with disabilities is still just a theory”. — Sapa-DPA