It was stated by the participants of The Round-Table devoted to creating barrier-free environment in Russia, which was held in Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs (MGIMO) under the aegis of the Organizing Committee "Sochi 2014".
Virtually the Sochi Games organizers have become pioneers in creating accessible space for people with disability in our country. All the constructions, being built at the moment in Sochi, take their interests into account. The preparation to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2014 gives us a real chance for systematic changes on a national scale. We can see some positive moves towards it. The Round-Table participants made sure of this in practice, having inspected a new MGIMO academic building in terms of accessibility, the building meets the PwD needs.
Constructing the Russian International Olympic University campus stipulates all the necessary things to provide students and teachers with equal conditions. Lev Belousov, the RIOU CEO, in his report at the Round-Table meeting focused on the university educational activities concerning the staging of the Paralympic Games. "Creating the environment, comfortable for PwD, should start not only with applying building standards, but also with holding educational events. Training qualified specialists, who acquired knowledge in barrier-free environment international experience, paralympic sport, ethics in communicating with PwD, will change the attitude of the society to these people and promote accessible infrastructure not only in the olympic capital but all over the country ", - he stated. The RIOU is carrying out effective educational work on increasing awareness of the society about PwD problems and improving regulatory system which is supposed to better their life. The university participates in training staff for the Paralympic Games, in organizing paralympic workshops for the OCOG employees. The RIOU near future perspective includes the implementation of full-scale educational programme (72 hours) "Paralympic sport and barrier-free environment".
