Furthermore, for a disabled person in China to reach such heights, despite a complete lack of disabled facilities, such as buildings with elevators, ramp access to all public buildings and clear paths for wheelchairs across the country, is an even greater achievement.

Yet I feel for China to dominate the Paralympics is a travesty of justice. They clearly spend so much money to "be the best" and make China look better than other countries to fund these athletes, but for the majority of disabled people in China they are barely able to leave their home. You rarely see people in wheelchairs or prosthetic limbs. I certainly see a lot of people missing limbs. If you visit orphanages in China they are filled with children who have physical and mental disabilities. The blind walkways around the city run into cars and telegraph poles and even walls. They are clearly not designed for blind people to actually use!

At the same time, in 2008 at Beijing the crowds for the Paralympics were low. I watched many events myself and the stadiums were virtually empty except for the Birdsnest and Water cube where people just took photos and left. My students were aghast at the idea of watching the Paralympics and I had at least 4 separate people mention "they are not normal people" as an excuse. I was horrified at the time

Surely if China cared about it's disabled population it would spend less money on dominating the Paralympics and more on making sure all buildings in China and all public facilities were wheel chair accessible. It would promote the idea that people with disabilities can do jobs well and are able to support themselves in life. It would support schools and parents with disabled children and arrest any parent caught "dumping" a disabled baby.

The idea of parents dumping their children because of a disability is sickening, and it sickens me to think of a parent not loving their child and just throwing them away or abandoning them at such centres across China. Yet given the lack of support it is hard to blame those who are already poor needing a healthy baby to one day work and help support the family rather than be a burden. Yet children with physical disabilities shouldn't be seen as a burden. As long as they are given a good education I expect they could do a better job than many able bodied staff I have worked with in my time.

So when I see China at the top of the Paralympic medal tally I am extremely proud of the athletes, but ashamed by the idea that the government cares more about what other countries think than of making real, life changing policies to improve the lives of all disabled people in China.