Chicago’s Focus on Accessibility Could Be Key in Bid for 2016 Summer
Olympics
By Tom Scott
Linda Mastandrea, Paralympian and
Chicago 2016 VP of Sport & Accessibility |
While the Windy City is famous for a lot of things, one of the least mentioned is its good accessibility. But Chicago is making great strides at offering an even more welcoming atmosphere to its disabled visitors and citizens. With the support of the Open Doors Organization, a disability-based nonprofit, Chicago recently released a 54-page comprehensive accessibility guide for travelers with disabilities titled Easy Access Chicago. A full PDF of the guide can be downloaded at www.easyaccesschicago.org.
The guide provides detailed information about Chicago’s accessible locations and avenues, offering visitors with disabilities an extremely useful resource during their stay in the City. Trained site inspectors from the Open Doors Organization audited the accessibility of hundreds of hotels, restaurants, museums, theatres, and public facilities while compiling the information presented in the guide.
“This guide is the first of its kind in the United States. Both user-friendly and comprehensive, [it] represents the commitment our city and state have made to provide a welcoming environment for those in need of accessibility. Hopefully this initiative will set an example for others to follow,” said Rod R. Blagojevich, Illinois Governor.
The guide is just one more initiative the City is taking on toward making Chicago more accessible, especially in its bid to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
During a press conference last month at the Chicago History Museum, Linda Mastandrea, vice president of Sports and Accessibility for Chicago 2016, discussed the improvements the city has made in becoming more accessible to wheelchair-users. “We have 70 accessible taxi cabs to date and that number increases. There’s been over 10,000 curb cuts installed in the city and work is ongoing. Why do these things in particular matter? [It is] the ease of getting athletes around, and the ease of spectators being able to experience the games. If you have truly accessible transportation and pathways, we can move not only Paralympic athletes around the city, but also spectators with disabilities who may be here for either the Olympic or Paralympic games. That’s really a step in the right direction,” Mastandrea said.
She added that Chicago is especially well-suited to host the Paralympics because of the city’s long history of being active in disability issues. “Chicago has really been at the forefront at developing disability sports. This gives us a chance to take that involvement to a new and different level,” she said.
As of late January, aroundtherings.com, a Web site devoted to Olympic coverage, gave Chicago a slim lead over Rio de Janeiro in its first power ratings of the seven bids for the 2016 Olympics. The ratings take into account ambiance, accommodation, legacy, transport, and cost. Other bid cities include Tokyo; Madrid; Baku, Azerbaijan; Doha, Qatar; and Prague, Czech Republic. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will select the finalists June of this year and announce the winning bid in October 2009.
It is estimated that Chicago will spend approximately $49.3 million in its bidding process. If selected the city will spend approximately $900 million on construction (most venues are already built, but a big chunk of the $900 million would come from the construction of the Olympic Stadium which would cost $386 million), receive close to $3 billion in revenue, and expect to host 10,500 athletes for the Olympics and 4,000 athletes for the Paralympics. These numbers, however, are likely to increase.
Participation in the Paralympic Games has steadily grown over the years. In Seoul 1988, 61 nations competed, and in Athens 2004, that number was up to 144. For more information on Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, please visit www.chicago2016.org.
Tom Scott is staff editor.
