From Competitions to College Campuses: Why Visibility and Accessibility Matters

Paralympic Triumphs and The Importance of Inclusive College Campuses

Alessandra Benitez

If you are an avid sports-watcher or enjoy sports at all, I have a question for you: Did you watch the Paralympics? If you didn’t, don’t worry, neither did I. To be honest, I didn’t watch the Olympics either (other than some TikTok clips). However, I’ve been doing some research, and Minnesota athletes showed up and showed out in the 2024 Paralympics! 

If you are a sports fan—or if you’ve been on social media at all these past months—then you probably already know that this August, the 2024 Summer Paralympics and Olympics took place in Paris. Now, the Paralympics have a lot of events and unless you’re glued to your television 24/7, I highly doubt that you watched all of them. Maybe you tuned in for a couple of events or watched a couple of clips on TikTok. Or, maybe you didn’t watch at all. Either way, how much have you heard about the Paralympics this year? How much have you heard about the Olympics? 

This summer, my timeline was bombarded with Olympic content. I don’t even watch sports and I could name at least five Olympians who competed in Paris this summer; unfortunately, I couldn’t do the same with Paralympic athletes. I could even tell you about athletes connected to the University of Minnesota because Barstool Gophers did a whole post about it titled “Gophers in the Olympics”—yet no similar post can be found about Gophers in the Paralympics. For months, everywhere you looked the “2024 Olympics” loomed over the collective consciousness like an impending holiday, something exciting to look forward to. On TikTok, you would see multiple edits of competitors winning their trials while a badass song played in the background. Nike made multiple promotional videos of the competitors, the news did segments on the impending competition, and the official Olympics' social media platforms had a countdown going on. Even Beyoncé made a promotional video for the Olympics! Some serious cash was spent on this competition—not that I necessarily disapprove of it—these athletes work hard and they deserve the recognition. But I do take issue with the fact that the Paralympics didn’t get the same amount of advertising. 

Think about the kinds of TikTok you saw about the Paralympics. I bet you’ll notice some clear differences between those and the Olympics content. While the Olympics page produced some inspiring, hardcore TikToks about the athletes that made it look as if they were celestial, the Paralympics page took the comedic route. For years, the Paralympics have been trivialized and sold to viewers as a sort of “watered-down” Olympics. Now, we’ve come a long way as a society when it comes to inclusivity and combating ableism, but there is still a long way to go, and one of those ways is by uplifting paralympic athletes for their hard work and skill. Language matters; disabled athletes don’t participate in the Paralympics, they compete.

And speaking of Gophers competing in the Paralympics, let’s shout them out! 

Chuck Aoki graduated from the U with a degree in Public Policy. This year, he competed in his fourth Paralympic games, where he helped the men’s wheelchair rugby team bring home a silver medal. It’s worth emphasizing that this is his third medal, making him Team USA’s most decorated wheelchair rugby athlete! 

Another athlete with ties to the U competing in her fourth Paralympic games is Mallory Weggemann. Mallory earned her degree in Public Relations at the U and this year, she won gold in the SM7 women's 200-meter individual medley, making her a four-time gold medal winner. 

Summer Schmit, a junior in the Gopher women’s swimming team competed in her second Paralympics this year. Furthermore, Schmit was recognized as a 2024 Academic All-Big Ten Honoree. 

Finally, Ian Seidenfeld, a 2022 Carlson School of Management Graduate competed in his second Paralympics and took home a bronze medal in Para Table Tennis. Overall Team USA was stacked with Minnesota athletes, and they rocked the 2024 Paralympics! 

Of course, accessibility is not limited to the Paralympics. It is just as important to ensure that places like college campuses are accessible to students with disabilities. In a poll taken by the University’s students, most agreed that when it comes to accessibility, the U’s efforts to make campus facilities and services more accessible can be considered fair. If you’ve never thought about this, don’t worry, not many people do. 

Kelli Kirsten, one of the polled students, highlighted that “accessibility tends to be something that people don’t really think about unless they or someone they’re close to has experienced it.” Nevertheless, accessibility (or the lack thereof) affects multiple students here. Kersten also noted that some of the accessibility features on buildings across campus seem to be more of an afterthought, like “add-ons,” rather than an intentional effort to include students with disabilities. 

Meanwhile, most of the students polled could agree that the University lacks some basic accessibility features. While the automatic door buttons not working might be a mild inconvenience to most students, for some, it can determine whether or not they’ll be able to get into the building. Ramps and sidewalks are often not salted properly, or they’re so out of the way that getting to the accessible entrances becomes difficult. Not all buildings have family bathrooms or individual stalls, which makes it harder for students who need these services. The U has a responsibility to all its students to make the campus a space everyone can use. 

Just the same, let’s not forget our roles in this. As much as it is the University’s responsibility to make schools as accessible as they can, it is also important to remember our role in achieving this. We all need to make a conscious effort to put accessibility at the forefront of our minds, whether it be inside the classroom or outside of it. While it is important to uphold institutions such as the Paralympics Committee or the University of Minnesota to high standards when it comes to inclusivity and visibility, it is also important to make sure that we as a community are doing everything we can to be inclusive to those with disabilities. All this is to say, maybe don’t leave lime scooters in the middle of the sidewalks or ramps anymore!