Tokyo (AFP)

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons of Brazil is worried about the continuing shortage of wheelchair-accessible hotel rooms in the Japanese capital.

"I could not be more satisfied with the preparations (...) We are totally in time," he said with AFP to one year of the opening of the Paralympic Games, August 25, 2020 , while admitting that his "greatest concern" is the small number of hotel rooms accessible to people with reduced mobility, outside the Paralympic village where the athletes and their staff will live.

Beyond this privileged space, only half of the thousands of accessible rooms needed would currently be available, according to the CPI.

Japanese law previously required only one accessible room for hotels with 50 or more rooms. The text has recently been modified to raise this level to 1% of the total number of rooms per hotel.

This reform will be a positive legacy of the Paralympics, but may well be too late for the competition itself.

According to Parsons, the problem of hotels, which "could affect the Games and the experience" of many participants of the event, reflects the stigma of disabled people in the country.

- Specific constraints -

"The most likely is that in Japan it is assumed that people with disabilities do not travel for pleasure or for business: why then have accessible hotel rooms?" Says the president of the CPI.

The Japanese organizers "understand that there is a problem, they understand that this is a problem for us, for the Games, so we are working together on the subject," said Mr Parsons.

He also hopes that the later date of the Paralympics will alleviate some of the heat and moisture issues that will affect the Olympics just before.

However, Paralympic athletes have specific constraints. For example, quadriplegics are unable to sweat and require other means to cool their bodies, says Parsons.

As with the Olympics, the start of the Paralympic marathon was advanced before dawn to avoid running under the blazing sun. But "wheelchair" athletes need more time to get ready, so it probably means they will have to get up at two in the morning, "laments the CPI president.

Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike has repeatedly stated that the Tokyo Games as a whole would be "not a success" if the Paralympics were not successful as well.

But Japanese society must change its "overprotective" attitude toward the disabled, according to Parsons.

For example, in spite of very accessible public transport, "you do not see people with disabilities moving, because there is a cultural barrier and they are expected to stay at home," he said. he.

However, mentalities are already evolving in the country, he notes, referring to the recent election of two severely disabled people in the Japanese Senate.

© 2019 AFP