Three snowmen stand outside the National Stadium on February 21, 2022 where Beijing will host the Winter Paralympic Games in March. Photo: IC

In order to enable people with disabilities to participate in and watch the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games, a number of barrier-free facilities have been added and renovated in various venues.

The Beijing Winter Paralympics will be held in five venues, including the National Indoor Stadium, the National Alpine Ski Center and the Genting Snow Park. Some of them were also used as venues for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. To meet the needs of the Games, facilities have been renovated, the Paper reported.

In the National Indoor Stadium, many facilities are "tailored" for athletes with disabilities. Hand exercise machines have replaced pedal bikes in the athletes' warm-up area and the shower rooms have also been specially prepared.

Barrier-free facilities have also been added, allowing disabled spectators to get closer, according to Knews.

New sheets with materials imitating ice have covered the previous rubber floor at the venue. During the Winter Paralympics, the sheets will be laid from the changing rooms to the stands to allow disabled athletes to pass through, while solid screens will be replaced with transparent ones, making it convenient for athletes to watch the games. 

Many places of the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing district were also adjusted such as adding Paralympic logos, barrier-free tunnels and wooden boards, no-slip mats on the snow.

"These are designed to allow the athletes to pass through the competition without obstacles," Liu Jie, a member of the team running the venue, told the media. "This is one of the core ideas of our games: humanization. We want to try not to help disabled athletes to move, but to try to create an environment where they can move on their own, which reflects equality and respect."

Braille reading materials and maps have been prepared to provide barrier-free information services for the visually impaired to understand the venue and competition information in venues in Zhangjiakou competition zone.

The Paralympic Villages have also been prepared to welcome delegations. The barrier-free facilities inside the rooms of the Winter Paralympic Villages have been built to be accessible so all athletes feel at home.

The fitness centers, entertainment centers and public squares inside the Winter Villages have also undergone many changes to incorporate temporary barrier-free facilities, such as a wheelchair dining area inside each restaurant and a wheelchair and prosthesis repair center in each of the public squares.

These facilities can also help to inspire the wider building of barrier-free facilities that are friendly to disabled people in public areas.

Chinese disabled people have become more prominent. Niu Yu, 24, a shining star at Shanghai Fashion Week in 2021 with a prosthetic leg, told the Global Times that society is more tolerant than disabled people might think and she has the courage to share her life now.