Enabled Games

From special roads for the blind to renovated press stands, next year's Olympic and Paralympic venues are already being hailed as the most user-friendly and barrier-free facilities so far deployed for the Summer Games.

Jin Ling from One Plus One writes news in Braille at the press center at the 2007 Shanghai Special Olympics. [China Daily]

At the International Goalball Tournament, the first Paralympic test event held in Beijing this September, organizers were able to put the venue through its paces before it hosts the volleyball competition next August during the 2008 Olympics and the goalball events during the follow-on Paralympics.

The venue, Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium, passed with flying colors and welcomed its first group of Chinese journalists with disabilities -- even setting up a special press stand for them on the ground floor.

Five volunteers were also selected to provide the reporters with a personalized guide service, said Fei Yibin, director of media operations for the venue, adding that they were instructed to step in when asked.

As the organizers of the Beijing 2008 are committed to hosting a "Games of Equal Splendor," so equal consideration has been given to journalists with disabilities at both the Olympics and Paralympics, they say.

"It is the first time in Olympic history that the two events are being run by the same organizing committee, so we have been able to carefully prepare our media operations for journalists with disabilities from the very beginning," said Sun Weijia, media director of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

Paralympians will use the same venues as Olympians, he said, meaning that all of the Olympic venues in Beijing will employ barrier-free facilities for athletes, coaches and reporters.

The 2008 Paralympics will be the biggest in the event's history, featuring 4,000 athletes from more than 150 countries and regions, and 4,000 journalists and technicians from around the globe.

Host China will send the largest delegation in hope of topping the medal standings for the second straight time.

Around 1 percent of all accredited journalists at the 2004 Athens Games had a disability of some sort, according to the International Paralympic Committee.

"We are not sure how many journalists with disabilities will come to cover the 2008 Paralympics, but we are expecting more than at previous Games," BOCOG media service manager Li Jingbo said.

Due to a lack of information about media accreditation at previous Paralympics, Beijing Games' officials had to find their way in the dark and formulate their own set of rules.

"There is no experience to learn from, so we are working on our own," Li said. "The procedure for the 2008 Paralympics will be decided by the end of this year. But we usually only accept applications from officially registered media organizations."

According to the China Disabled Persons Federation (CDPF), some journalists with disabilities are already working on its print publications and website. They have been involved in covering sporting events like the Far East & South Pacific Games for the Disabled, and the National Games for the Disabled.

"We will fully support any Chinese journalists with disabilities who want to report the 2008 Paralympics," said the CDPF's communication's officer Feng Hao.

"It is good to see them trying to get more involved in their own business enterprises."