DESCRIPTION:
There is a man with short, dark hair on stage behind a lectern. He is wearing a black suit with a grey tie. To his right on stage is a middle-aged man in a grey shirt interpreting in sign language.
CHRIS HOLMES:
I think what I’d like to do is talk a little bit about my sporting career, a lot about the organisation, the planning and the delivery of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. We made two decisions in that bid, which I think were the most important decisions we ever made through the whole project. That was to have one organising committee to plan and deliver Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, and, secondly, to have access, diversity and inclusion hardwired into our bid right from the beginning.
And, crucially, I, along with the other directors, knew that we had to lead on access. It only works if it’s led, if it’s owned, if it’s gripped right from the top, right across all of our government departments. We had 17 government departments we needed to do stuff for us. All of those partners, all of those stakeholders, needed to be as committed to, as connected, as into diversity, access and inclusion as we were, but the ‘E’ is the most important part. We’re doing access, diversity and inclusion to create extraordinary experiences, building that experience and letting the experience drive the operational detail.
It was all about constructing end-to-end journeys, and we knew the most important point was Heathrow Airport. We needed to construct a one-team approach there. Not easy - there’s 94 airlines operating out of Heathrow. There’s baggage handlers, ground staff, whole series of different organisations who never work together, and we had to make one team, Team Heathrow, for the Games to deliver an inclusive experience because it was people’s first touch point. We just started from that experience of saying, “This is how it should be. This needs to happen. How do we make it happen? Let’s make it happen.”
DESCRIPTION:
The man interpreting in sign language is replaced by a woman with light brown hair and a black top. She continues interpreting in sign language.
CHRIS HOLMES:
If you make a change to benefit disabled people, it will inevitably benefit everyone and we really saw that through all the elements of our planning. And when I took some journalists around some of our competition venues, they said, “Show me some of the inclusive features that you’ve talked about”. I said, “Well, that’s really the point”. The fact that we’ve planned it from the outset means that these things won’t stand out like big, red flashing signs going, “This is the Access Zone. This is a Disability Point”. The whole point is it’s blended in neatly, put into inclusive design from the outset.
And when it came to our volunteers, we didn’t just want them to understand, to have an appreciation, to have an ability to act, when it came to working with disabled people as spectators, as guests. We wanted to have a significant number of disabled people as volunteers, as Games Makers, at London 2012.
And we had over 100,000 contractors. If you were coming in as a spectator, as a member of the media, it’s most likely you’re gonna meet a contractor, you’re gonna interact with a contractor, so we had to ensure that all of those guys were absolutely hardwired into this. One team of workforce, same consistency of service whether you were paid, volunteer, or contractor, because if you were a spectator, you didn’t care whether somebody was paid, a volunteer or contractor, all you wanted was an exceptional experience at Games time.
I think a key piece, which is often overlooked, is the Last Mile and that’s the piece from the Transport Hub to the gates of the event. Absolutely essential for so much work to be put into that to ensure that, when someone’s off the transport and before they’re in the hands of the event organiser, there’s access and inclusion built throughout that Last Mile.
The seating bowl, the stadia, the action. What we figured was, let’s have the wheelchair seating positions dotted throughout the seating bowl. Let’s not clump them together. Let’s have them spread throughout the seating bowl. And what a radical concept. If you come to the Games with your wife, as a wheelchair user, you can sit and experience the event with your wife.
DESCRIPTION:
The woman interpreting in sign language is replaced by another woman with long, dark brown hair, a brown top and a brown jacket. She continues interpreting in sign language.
CHRIS HOLMES:
And I’ll share a little story. I went into a school in the east of London and had a lovely time, I had a great chat. Then we got to the questions and one of the kids puts his hand up and he says, “Oi, Mister”. I went, “Yeah?” He says, “So you’re blind, right?” “Yeah”. He says, “So you can’t see nothing?” I chose to ignore the double negative.
(LAUGHTER)
CHRIS HOLMES:
I merely mused on the state of British education.
(LAUGHTER)
CHRIS HOLMES:
I said, “That’s right. I can’t see anything”. And he says, “Well, how do you know when someone’s robbing your house?”
(LAUGHTER)
CHRIS HOLMES:
Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
DESCRIPTION:
Two screens are above the stage, showing the text ‘Chris Holmes MBE, Director for Paralympic Integration, London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) 2012’. The man behind the lectern and the woman interpreting sign language are still on stage. To the right of the woman at the back of the stage is another man in a black suit and black tie holding a manila folder. On the far right of the stage is a screen with text scrolling.
DESCRIPTION:
Chris Holmes is standing in front of a grey wall.
CHRIS HOLMES:
Hi, I’m Chris Holmes MBE, director of the Paralympic Games for London 2012. I’m at the Accessible Events Smart Business Forum here in Sydney. And what we want you to do is to contribute your views on your experience of events you’ve been to. Good, bad, indifferent, we want to hear your experiences at events, because what this conference is all about is planning for accessible, inclusive, exceptional events. So please do give your feedback after the presentation.
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