Two years to go to the 2012 Paralympics Games

In exactly two years time London will be gearing up for one of the biggest celebrations the capital has ever seen with the beginning of the London Paralympic Games. For 12 momentous days, 150 nations will compete in 20 different competition venues in London and across the UK.

London is hugely excited and proud to be hosting the Paralympic Games and we are all working hard to ensure they will be an unparalleled triumph. In size and scale the Paralympics are the second largest sporting event in the world, with 4,000 elite athletes participating. Hosting the Paralympics in 2012 is especially important for England as the Paralympics Games have their origins here, beginning in 1948 as a competition for wheelchair athletes at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire.

A key organisation that will contribute to the Games ' success is the London 2012 Equality and Diversity Forum. The forum, which I chair, brings together key London 2012 stakeholders with the aim of ensuring that the London Games are the most diverse ever.  We meet every two months to discuss, evaluate and monitor significant London 2012 programmes and have this week published our second annual report Working Towards an Inclusive Games.

The report highlights examples of good practice in increasing access and inclusion to a range of sporting, business, employment and volunteering opportunities presented by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 2009/10 has seen some fine progress, with the Government publishing the first ever legacy plan for disabled people, and local information initiatives that have led to five per cent of women making up contractors workforce on the Olympic Park.

Find out more about Working Towards an Inclusive Games

Promoting information on how ordinary people can get involved in the Games is an important focus of the forum. A major milestone this year was promoting information on the volunteering opportunities available. These included the Mayor’s London Ambassadors and the London 2012 Games Maker volunteering programmes that are already reflecting the diversity of the people they will assist in 2012. All of this will go a long way towards ensuring that the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are ‘the most accessible Games ever’ and leave a lasting impact on diverse communities, using the power of sport to inspire change.

Find out how to become a London Ambassador

To mark the build-up to two years to go, the Mayor was given a lesson in Boccia by some of our finest Paralympians. At the event in Trafalgar Square he announced that the iconic square will be a Festival Live Site during the Paralympic Games.  In choosing this London landmark, recognised around the world, visitors from home and abroad will be at the heart of the celebrations for the Paralympics in 2012.

With an audience capacity of 10,000, live coverage from the Paralympic Games venues will be screened in the Square and a range of live cultural performances will take place. Building on the successes of the annual Liberty Festival, this is an opportunity to showcase some of the amazing creative talent developed from disability arts groups, disabled artists and producers alongside mainstream arts groups.

All eyes will be on London during the summer of 2012 and the capital will celebrate these inspirational athletes and their fans like never before. Our capital is going to be the backdrop for two of the greatest sporting events in the world and we are on track to show everyone the best of our fantastic city.

The Paralympics have for too long been the Cinderella event, but with Channel 4 as the sponsoring broadcaster, and LOCOG and the Mayor totally committed to delivering an accessible Games we can ensure that athletes, spectators and visitors to London have the best experience possible.