Will Paris’s Metro Adapt to Disabled Riders Before the 2024 Olympics?

Paris’s Metro is many things: Its Art Nouveau entrances are romantic, its platforms dirty, its never-ending corridors tiring, and its buskers diverting. But for all its charms and irritants, the French subway is almost wholly inaccessible to parts of the population. Out of 303 Metro stations, only nine (or 3 percent) are fully accessible for wheelchair users—with an elevator from the street to the exchange room, another elevator to the platforms, and platforms that align with trains. Six other stations are semi-accessible with staff assistance. As the French capital prepares to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the inaccessibility of the Metro has become a thorny issue.

Jean-Michel Secondy works for APF France Handicap, an association advocating for people with physical disabilities, and has been a mobility activist for 25 years. “First, we fought to make buses accessible, and now it’s the Metro,” he said. “Just look at how many stations are accessible for people in wheelchairs, and you’ll get what the problem is.”