Have disabled people’s lives improved since the London 2012 Paralympics?

Authors: Ian Stuart Brittain, Associate Professor in Disability Studies, Coventry University; Mike Duignan, Reader in Events and Director of the Observatory for Human Rights and Major Events, University of Surrey; and Verity Postlethwaite, Research associate, Japan Research Centre, SOAS, University of London

Ten years ago, London hosted the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. For London 2012 planners, a central aim was that this mega-event would change the way non-disabled people – and society at large – see disabled people in the long-term.

Prominent political figures including Tony Blair, Ken Livingstone and the chairman of the London Organising Committee, Sebastian Coe, placed diversity and inclusion at the heart of the London legacy plans. They contended that the magic of hosting is in the ability of such events to tackle endemic social problems.

Whether London 2012 has delivered its promises for disabled people depends largely on who you talk to. The UK government and many of those involved in organizing the London 2012 Paralympic Games have hailed them a great success.

Experts and organizations representing disabled people paint a very different picture, however. As the medical historian and author Anne Borsay pointed out in her book Disability and Social Policy in Britain Since 1750: A History of Exclusion, disabled people in Britain (as in many countries around the world) were deemed second-class citizens before 2012 – and, on the whole, they still are.

Research shows they are often marginalized from the rest of society through a mixture of physical barriers, negative attitudes, and a lack of access to education, employment, housing, and other key resources. This was a problem identified, in particular, in the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Japan.

Underpinning London 2012 legacy plans for disabled people was what experts and campaigners term the “social model” of disability. Contrary to the medical model, which posits that disability is caused by a person’s impairments or differences, the social model holds that people are disabled by barriers in society. Therefore, the idea is to change societal attitudes to enable people with disabilities to live good lives.

These legacy plans comprised three broad aims. First, to improve access for disabled people to goods, services, and employment opportunities and to work with the media to positively raise the profile of disabled people’s place and talents in society.

Second, to support opportunities for disabled people to participate in sport and physical activity. And third, to promote greater participation of disabled people in the community through the Games.

It is possible to claim limited success for the London Games, particularly around elite parasports and education. Advocates at the highest level of sport and politics used the London 2012 Paralympics to influence the infrastructure and education around disability.

Ex-Paralympians Tanni Grey-Thompson and Chris Holmes now sit in the House of Lords, where they are able to push for change.

And in its Get Set education programme, for the first time, an Olympic organizing committee used the Paralympic values – courage, determination, inspiration, and equality – as well as Olympic Values in the national schools programme during London 2012.

This has become the blueprint for the globally successful I’m Possible Paralympic educational resource. Research shows how Olympic host cities and national paralympic committees have used what they learned from London 2012 to build the visibility of the Paralympic movement and its role in sport and society.

Closer to home, UK Sport and Sport England have prioritized and consistently funded elite – and to a lesser extent, grassroots – sports provision for disabled people across the country. Since London 2012, the Great Britain Paralympic team, in particular, has enjoyed increased funding and continued success at all summer and winter Paralympic Games.

There is also evidence to suggest that the paralympics may have had a positive impact on how disabled people use public transport. In preparation for the games,  London’s 270 tube stations  were fitted with step free access. Wheelchair ticket sales and lift usage increased, showing that more disabled people felt comfortable using the underground. An increase in train station amenities like  luggage storage at St Pancras  has hopefully only helped to make getting around easier - even if there are still many changes that still need to be made to London’s public transport to make it more inclusive. 

However, success cannot be claimed in terms of transforming attitudes towards disabled people and increasing their participation in the community. Research has found that London 2012 Paralympics had a minimal impact on the number of disabled people taking part in sports. Further, in 2018, the Activity Alliance released research showing that “almost half of the disabled people (47%) fear losing their benefits if they are seen to be physically active.”

Moreover, disabled people’s lives have been shown to have worsened since 2012. The fallout from the 2008 global economic crash meant that disabled people were facing greater poverty, exclusion, and risk of abuse.

The austerity measures put in place in the UK from 2010 saw disabled people described as benefit scroungers in the national press. 

In 2019, the United Nations published a scathing report on how the UK government was treating disabled people. By 2022, the report projected, some families with disabled people in the UK would have lost more than 30% of their annual net income. It also highlighted how many people were already shouldering most of the financial burden of their own care.

The pandemic, of course, has made a bad situation worse. Research shows disabled people have been severely impacted by the pandemic. According to the Office of National Statistics, people with disability comprised six in every ten COVID-19-related deaths in the UK in 2021.

As a result of these compounded crises, the author, journalist, and disability activist Frances Ryan has claimed that disabled people in the UK are now enduring “nine times the burden of cuts compared to the average citizen, with people with the most severe disabilities being hit a staggering 19 times harder”.

Read more: Your disability doesn't define you (or does it?)

The International Paralympic Committee has launched two campaigns – WeThe15 and The Valuable 500 – which effectively broaden the scope for reshaping the way society views disabled people. 

It is a tacit acknowledgment that mega-events do not occur in a vacuum. They, and any associated legacy plans, are just as susceptible to external issues beyond their control – meaning that on their own, these events cannot achieve the transformational social change that is often claimed for them.

Because they elicit such extensive media coverage, the Paralympic Games can start a discussion around disability issues. But for things to really change, one summer mega-sporting event every four years is simply not enough.

Have disabled people’s lives improved since the London 2012 Paralympic? is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license CC BY-ND 4.0