• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Fewer than 100 disabled volunteers to take part in Paralympics ceremony

Fewer than 100 disabled volunteers to take part in Paralympics ceremony

By guest on 5th June 2012 Category: News Archive

Listen

Organisers of this summer’s Paralympics opening ceremony have faced heavy criticism after admitting that fewer than 100 of the 3, 000 adult volunteers set to take part will be disabled people.

The volunteers will take roles as dancers, actors, percussionists and all-round performers, joining a professional cast of more than 100.

Disability News Service has obtained the volunteer figures from LOCOG, the London 2012 organising committee.

Only just over three per cent of the mass cast of volunteers will be disabled people, compared with about three-quarters of the professional, paid cast.

Michelle Baharier, chief executive of CoolTan Arts, the London-based arts charity run by and for adults with mental distress, said the numbers were “incredibly disappointing”.

Earlier this year, she warned that the demands placed on volunteers by LOCOG would be “totally inappropriate” for many disabled people.

She had been among those who warned that LOCOG’s call for volunteers with “huge amounts of energy” would put many disabled people off, while LOCOG had initially been unable to say whether it would fund the travel and support costs of disabled volunteers.

Baharier said this week that LOCOG had failed to make the volunteering opportunity accessible, and pointed to its failure to do “outreach” work with groups of disabled people, which would have allowed potential volunteers to feel more comfortable with the idea of taking part.

Baharier said LOCOG had suggested that volunteers “almost had to be fit enough to do a full-time job”.

She said: “I showed [the communication from LOCOG] to people and they said they couldn’t make that fulltime commitment.”

She added: “Britain came up with the Paralympics and you would have thought we could have done something different at the opening ceremony. It would have been a really good learning curve for other people as well.”

She said she would have liked to see more of a focus on the potential legacy of the ceremony, for example by “empowering disabled people to not be hidden away”, an idea she would have liked to see “run through the whole of London 2012”.

The ceremony’s two disabled artistic directors, Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings, have pledged to bring inclusive practice, equality and empowerment onto the stage in the Olympic Stadium on 29 August.

The theme of the ceremony will also be one of “empowerment”, describing a journey “towards freedom, democracy and enlightenment”.

A LOCOG spokesman said the call for volunteers had been “well-publicised” and that “almost everyone who auditioned who has a disability has been successful in being passed as being a performer”.

But he added: “Obviously we would like more people to have auditioned. We worked hard to make sure that everybody who might be possibly interested was aware of the opportunity.”

When asked why LOCOG thought so few disabled people had volunteered, he declined to comment.

One leading disabled artist said the failure to ensure a more accessible rehearsal programme was “heart-breaking”, as it had deprived so many disabled people across the country of the chance to take part.

Ju Gosling, director of Together!, the disability arts and human rights festival set to take place in east London during the Paralympics, said: “I’m very saddened to hear this, but not completely surprised.

“When the call for volunteers went out, we warned that the rehearsals were being organised in such a way as to make them virtually inaccessible to disabled people, and so it has proven.

“Ironically, the three per cent figure mirrors the percentage of disabled people employed in Arts Council-funded arts organisations.”

She said the figures underlined the need for “widespread and revolutionary change” in how arts activities are organised in order to implement article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on disabled people’s participation in cultural life.

21 June 2012

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Government ignores warnings of new DWP deaths, and UN intervention, as MPs pass universal credit cuts bill

Urgent letter from UN to Labour government warns: We think your cuts continue Tory attack on disability rights

Race against time to secure DWP deaths evidence before parliament passes new benefit cuts bill

‘Complete shift in thinking’ needed on education of disabled children, says ALLFIE

Minister ignored concerns from disabled advisers, months before publishing cuts bill

Frustration after government only issues partial ban on new floating bus stops

Report suggests five big ideas that could transform disabled people’s mobility

My new book shows exactly why we need the disability movement, says disabled author

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web