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You and YoursÌý- Transcript ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 |
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TX: 23.09.04 -ÌýACCESSIBILITY AT PARALYMPICS PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE & PETER WHITE |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT.Ìý BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE ´óÏó´«Ã½ CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WAITE As team GB keeps on going for gold at the Athens Paralympics how easy is it for them, their disabled fans perhaps, friends and families to get around the ancient city? Earlier this year you may remember when You and Yours first reported from the Greek capital officials assured us that great strides were being made in dealing with some of the city's most intractable problems, like chaotic parking and crumbling pavements. So Peter White, our man in Athens, has been checking up on whether those promises were kept. The Hermes Project is a government initiative in Greece targeted at private companies, with the incentive not of government money but the assurance that their businesses would be promoted as disabled friendly. John Hadoulis, a local journalist, joined Peter to see if it's worked. Ìý HADOULIS When the programme was first announced 6 in 10 businesses were not interested in taking part because presumably they thought a. what's the cost going to be and b. will I get the expected increase in revenue. Ìý WHITE So how big do you think the uptake has been on Hermes? Ìý HADOULIS Not very large. For example, there's very few banks. Most of the restaurants that are listed as accessible are in major hotels and of course you'd imagine that in major hotels you would have that anyway. Ìý WHITE You're going to take us on a little guided tour to see how things are working out. Well where do you think we should start? Ìý HADOULIS I think we should start on Ermou, which is the main shopping district of Athens and that's where you'd think that there'd be most of the effects of the upgrade. But as we'll see there's very little has been done. Ìý This is one of the major chains in Greece, very popular, it has men's wear, women's wear quite well priced. I'm looking at two steps going in, but you probably would need two people to help you up if you were in a wheelchair. Ìý WHITE I tell you what let's go in and ask them if they've thought about it. Ìý Okay security have asked us to leave because we've been trying to do a recording. Ìý Back on the pavement the manageress did agree to come and talk to us. John explained the problem. Ìý MANAGERESS The only entrance is this. Ìý WHITE Do you have any wheelchair users in your shop? Ìý MANAGERESS No, but we have big changing rooms for wheelchairs. Ìý WHITE But they can't get in. How are they going to get in that entrance? Ìý MANAGERESS I'm sorry it's not my ... Ìý HADOULIS I mean it's not your fault. Ìý WHITE No, I'm not blaming you. Why have an accessible changing room in a shop that you can't get into? Ìý Just one query John, is this area here - is this meant to be pedestrianized? Ìý HADOULIS Definitely. Ìý WHITE Because it isn't is it, not completely. Ìý HADOULIS Well if you're very, very alert you might be able to avoid the motorbikes that come from behind you and the cars that cross the streets and the delivery vans and the taxis and the city police that patrol in their vehicles. Ìý WHITE But yeah there's a motorbike behind me now. Ìý HADOULIS Yeah. Ìý WHITE So how can they get away with that? Ìý HADOULIS Simple answer - lack of policing. Ìý WHITE When we did find a police officer we asked, or tried to, why these law breakers weren't being challenged. Ìý HADOULIS TRANSLATING POLICE OFFICER It's like this is a departmental matter and I'm not allowed to talk about it. You have to go to central offices and ask and we don't have jurisdiction to stop them from coming through. And he walked away. WHITE And moments later he apparently had the jurisdiction to move on a busker who was absolutely no threat to life and limb whatsoever. Ìý BUSKER SINGING Ìý WHITE So how satisfied is Athens with its performance so far? Its mayor Dora Bakoyannis has good reason to take it all seriously - her mother was disabled by polio. But she also has the job of presenting the best face of Athens to the rest of the world. Ìý BAKOYANNIS You know you understand that also in London or in older cities at the time wherever there were steps it was quite difficult to make this accessible for people who are disabled. So what we are trying to do now is give the incentives to the shops to make the extra effort for the accessibility. So what we are going to do is promote them, promote them and make sure that everybody knows that they did it and that they are worth of an extra promotion. It has been transformed, you can even go up the Acropolis now, which was impossible even to think of some years ago. Ìý WHITE The only time wheelchair user Christina Papamichael has been to the top of Acropolis was when she was carried there as a baby. She agreed to share with You and Yours her first experience of it as an independent adult able to get there under her own steam. Ìý PAPAMICHAEL The lift going up to the Acropolis functions in two stages. The first stage is a Stanna stairlift and when we get to the middle we will begin the vertical assent up the rear side of the Acropolis rock. It looks like a shopping trolley attached to scaffolding. It really looks daunting. It's fine, it's very smooth, it's very noisy and you have a great view of Lycabetus hill. Ìý It's a far smoother and faster trip than I ever expected it would be. I don't know how anybody in a self-propelling wheelchair would get up there because it is gravel and rock and pot holes. But you don't notice, I mean for a view like this it's seriously worth being bounced around. Ìý So you're having to walk over this uneven terrain and I got up out of the wheelchair because getting the wheelchair over it would have been nigh on impossible and I'm on crutches. But it's still a little daunting. ÌýWe can see copies of the Caryatids, we can see the Parthenon in front. It is beautiful. I think it's wonderful that having hosted the Olympics and now hosting the Paralympics that this enables athletes from all over the world to come up and see the monument. And also enables disabled tourists who wouldn't have had any chance at all. Now of course they have to make Poseidon's Temple at Sounion accessible because that must be amazing. Ìý WAITE And you can read more about Christina's experience of the Acropolis on the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s disability website - Ouch! Peter meanwhile is still on the trail of the Greek Department of Transport to find out why road motorists are not being prosecuted for driving in supposedly pedestrian zones and we'll have more on that and the Paralympics long-term legacy for disabled people in Greece on Monday's You and Yours.Ìý Back to the You and Yours homepage The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for external websites |
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