(ECNS) -- An accessibility expert of International Paralympic Committee (IPC) spoke highly of accessible facilities at Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games, praising them as "setting the bar."
Ileana Rodriguez, IPC accessibility expert, made the comment at a press conference held on Sunday concerning the construction of a barrier-free environment at Beijing 2022.
Slight height differenceshave been removed and barrier-free facilities, including automatic doors, barrier-free seats, elevators and toilets, have been installed across venues.
Safety protection equipment like crash pads and strips have been added to tracks. Lampposts, electric boxes and wooden fences have been transformed to ensure the safety of athletes.
Both competition venues and Winter Paralympic Villages have fully considered the needs of the visually impaired. For example, Braille menus are available in the dining rooms of Winter Paralympic Villages and Braille can be seen in the accessible elevators of all venues.
Enlarged Braille text or voice prompts in Chinese and English are provided to facilitate visually impaired athletes to clearly understand related information at anti-doping checkpoints, medical clinics and other areas.
In all competition and non-competition venues, 297 tactile paving prompts have been added, according to Yang Jinkui, director general of the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee's Paralympic department.
"Where there is a road, there istactile paving," said Yang.
Vice Chairman of the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation Guo Xusheng said a team of 2,000 people, including seniors, people with disabilities and experts, visited competition venues and other related areas to experience the accessibility of the Beijing Winter Paralympics.
More than 10,000 people visited the venue for the experience.