Lyon 26-29 April 1999

Belgian delegation

Accessibility to further education

Preparation

Travelling to Lyon by TGV seemed during the preparation of this trip to be the easiest solution to get three teachers and five pupils with a physical disability to Lyon. Mrs Lavaert who is the coordinator of the Comenius project within Sint-Lodewijk made inquiries whether this would be possible and she received an affirmative fax. People in a wheelchair can travel by TGV as long as they travel first class. However, a few weeks before departure suddenly it became impossible for our group to travel by TGV because it was discovered that only one electric wheelchair per train was allowed and we had two of them. The Comenius workgroup of Sint-Lodewijk had a crisis-meeting to see if there were alternative means of transport. It was decided we could either take the plane or have us driven to Lyon by bus. Both options would be far more expensive than travelling by train. But thanks to Mr. Wouters of the Belgian railway customers’ services’ lobbying we nevertheless could get on the TGV if only one of the pupils in an electric wheelchair would stay in it during the trip. Luckily one of our electric wheelchair users, An, can get out of this device.

Meanwhile, five pupils had been selected on grounds of motivation, awareness of and knowledge about the Comenius project. In March, the pupils selected with the aid of teachers and other pupils started to prepare the presentation on accessibility to further education. A general survey of the different topics which had to be examined was designed and each topic was designated to two pupils. Each group then independently – although at any time they could get help or advice from the teachers who surveyed the project – summarized and structured the information concerning their topic and wrote down their part of the presentation using Word and PowerPoint.

Before departure, on Friday 23 April during the morning classes the presentation was rehearsed.

Monday 26 April

At 1 pm Mr. Meuleman and Mr. Schockaert, two of the accompanying teachers, took with Robin, the pupil who had to remain in his electric wheelchair, the train to Brussels. The station of Kwatrecht, the home base of Sint-Lodewijk, had been informed beforehand about our trip and we got a railway employee and a kind of moveable ramp to get us on the train. From the point of view of someone who has no disability it is a bit sad to notice that people in a wheelchair cannot enter the carriages themselves and have to remain standing in the corridor. You would at least expect that people who want to get in and out of the train would choose another entrance or exit when they see someone in a wheelchair standing over there not to harass him but sadly this kind of politeness was completely absent.

On the way to Brussels Mrs. Vergauwen and An Katrien and Sabine joined us on the train. While in Kwatrecht station one is accustomed with getting people in a wheelchair onto and out of a train this clearly was not the case in the stations of Liedekerke and Brussels. In Liedekerke there was no ramp so the two girls had to be carried in the carriage by sheer manpower. In Brussels the ramp was so steep that Robin at first did not dare to use it for fear that he would tumble over.

The day before An Katrien fell out of her wheelchair. As a result her wrist was sprained so she would not be able to use it for a few days. This meant that there were now two pupils instead of one who had to be continually taken care of by the teachers.

In Brussels station the last two pupils, An and Jody were waiting for us.

It has to be mentioned that the personnel in Brussels station was extremely helpful: they helped us getting out of the train and in the elevator. They accompanied us to the Railtour office which was our meeting point and they even proposed to pick us up there to accompany us to the TGV platform and helped us there getting unto it. Their help was gladly received as except for one all other pupils had to be lifted out of their wheelchair and carried to their seats. One really wonders why no more spaces for wheelchairs are available in such a hightech train.

The trip to Lyon went fairly smooth. Due to an accident on the TGV track we had a 40 minutes delay when arriving at Lyon Part Dieu which caused the personnel who was supposed to help us getting out of the train to be extremely stressed. The embarkment went far too slow for them. As a result we also got a bit irritated because firstly we had nothing to do whatsoever with the delay and secondly general politeness and respect for others should prevent anyone to yell at someone with a disability because he or she needs some time to get out of a seat and into a wheelchair which had to be unloaded and assembled first. On the platform we met Muriel and Mr. Jalabert, a teacher and the principal of our partner school in Lyon who would be our hosts for the next three days. With two little vans adapted for transporting people in a wheelchair we were driven to the Centre International de Séjour in Lyon. First we had dinner and then we went off to our rooms on the fourth floor. The rooms were a huge disappointment because only one of them was adapted. The other pupils had to share a double bedroom. Unfortunately, there were a few problems: the doors were fire protection doors which were far too heavy for the pupils to open and even to close. There was a sill of at least an inch and the space between the two beds was too narrow for a wheelchair to ride between. The biggest problem was the bathroom: its door was only 50 centimetres broad and you need at least 80 centimetres to pass through in a wheelchair. Even the adapted room was far too small, the door of the bathroom was too heavy and turned into the room (an architectural flaw). The toilet only at one side had a device to hold onto and the seat in the shower was far too unstable to safely support someone. This caused the pupils as well as the teachers a lot of worries. But with a lot of creativity we managed to find acceptable solutions. After a while we even saw the humour in the whole situation.

Thursday 27 April

After breakfast which as the dinner the night before was self service which is not very handy for people in a wheelchair (you cannot carry a tray and ride at the same time) we left at 8am and were driven to the Lycée d’Enseignement du 1er Film where Mr. Pastor, an architect with a disability himself (he had to walk with a stick or use a wheelchair) talked about the problems he encounters and then showed a video about the accessibility (and sometimes the inaccessibility) of the Lyon university, a project in which he also had been involved. After this, the four foreign delegations (Holland, Belgium, Germany and Ireland) gave their presentations. Ours went really well after we solved a small technical problem: there was a computer at our disposition but it had an antiquated version of PowerPoint. Luckily we had brought along a laptop of our own which could be connected to the French screen projector. It is a pity that only the Belgian delegation had made a resume which was handed out. We enclosed even two resumes: one in English and a French translation. Perhaps one day our research on accessibility to further education could prove useful to our partner schools, one never knows. Only the German delegation had also made handouts. Theirs was in English and German.

After a video about the Lycée d’Enseignement du 1er Film we crossed the street to have dinner at the Collège d’Argent which has a catering department. The pupils from the different Comenius partner schools were mixed up so that they had to speak a foreign language and had the opportunity to get acquainted.

In the afternoon the group was split up. A smaller group consisting of a teacher and a pupil of each of the Comenius partners accompanied a crew of the regional television station which wanted to cover the gathering of five European schools for pupils with a disability. During the walk through the city the accessibility of the metro was demonstrated: everywhere in town there are elevators which give access to the underground. The doors of the train open at the same level as the platform and when the doors open automatically the gap between platform and entrance is covered by a small metal bridge. When leaving the metro, Jody and Mr. Schockaert gave an interview in French for a regional radio station on the accessibility of Lyon and the metro in particular. During the walk both groups got back together again and had a drink. After that it was time to go to the town hall where the mayor gave a speech which was followed by a drink. The Belgian pupils were discouraged to eat a lot of appetisers as they would not be hungry enough afterwards but unfortunately there was no meal planned. Mrs. Vergauwen and Mr. Meuleman left the town hall in search for food and came back with sandwiches. Still we do not know what the reason could be for not planning a meal. The thought of going to a restaurant with the Belgian delegation crossed our minds but this was practically impossible. We first would have to find a restaurant which was accessible and then we had to get back to the hotel but we had not been given a plan of the metro and catching a bus or a taxi would be impossible with five wheelchairs. Completely exhausted we went to bed around midnight.

Wednesday 28 April

An, Robin, Mr. Vermeulen and Mr. Schockaert had to get up earlier as An and Robin had to go to physiotherapy in the Fondation Richard. The rest of the group would join us there later for a tour of the school.

According to An and Robin the physio was a sheer nightmare. To their minds they were treated far too roughly.

At half past eight the others arrived at the Fondation and we were offered breakfast (we already breakfasted at the hotel but now there were croissants and hot cocoa). Again several groups consisting of teachers and pupils from the different Comenius partners were formed. Pupils of the Fondation Richard were our guides. It was a pity that most of the pupils were absent because on that day there was a kind of sports day. But nevertheless we watched a cooking class and visited the technology room, an activity building and a printing-business run by pupils.

After the tour we watched a demonstration of wheelchair soccer. An and Robin especially enjoyed this because they are members of the Sint-Lodewijk wheelchair hockey team.

After the demonstration we got lunch at the Fondation. In contrast with our hotel, they did not forget to prepare a vegetarian dish for some pupils.

After lunch we were driven to the old centre of Lyon, Vieux Lyon, for a sightseeing tour with a professional guide. She showed us a unique medieval clockwork and quite a few ‘traboules’, covered alleys dating from the 16th century. The alleys are the connection between houses facing the street and houses built after those. The traboules lead to courtyards in beautiful Italian renaissance style. You only can visit the courtyards and the traboules with a guide as the entrance is a door which normally is locked. Most of the traboules were or could be made accessible for wheelchairs. At a certain moment there sprang a riot between a fire-eater and the police. This enormously interested us but the guide wanted us out of the danger zone and we could not get rid of her. After the tour we had two hours off which we spent by taking a walk just with the people of Sint-Lodewijk. We bought postcards and Mr. Schockaert and Jody were hugely embarassed when they tried to buy stamps. They saw a huge building with ‘La Poste’ written on it. They wanted to enter it through a beautifully carved door. A gentle young woman helped them by holding the door open which was a few millimetres too narrow for the wheelchair to pass without causing a bit of damage which made Mr. Schockaert angry because in his view public building should be accessible. After the wooden door there was a glass one with a lot of bells next to it. The friendly woman rang one and held the door open for Jody and Mr. Schockaert. But there was no sign of a counter. Then they realised that probably they were in the wrong place. And indeed, when they left the building they saw that the post office was the next door.

After this we had a drink and wrote our postcards. It was one of the few moments we could relax. In the early evening we gathered on a square where we mounted a bus which drove us to the bank of the Rhône where we embarked on a boat for a ’dîner-croisière’, a dinner while we made a tour on the rivers Rhône and Saône. This was big fun. At around midnight we disembarked and were driven to the hotel.

Thursday 29 April

We got up rather early because we had to leave at a quarter past seven. At Lyon station we realised we had forgotten Robin’s spare wheelchair in his room. Thanks to our hosts of the Fondation Richard we got it back just in time. On our return trip we were helped by friendly people, both in Lyon as in Brussels. A van drove us back to Kwatrecht where we arrived deadly exhausted at 3 pm.

To conclude with, the conclusion of the pupils’s account: "It was a very interesting and pleasant journey and we hope that student s who’ll go next year will experience the same as we did. You make new friends of other countries and you hope to see each other again".

Frederik Schockaert