LA28 Is Bringing the Paralympics to Long Beach. Are Local Businesses Ready?

For Long Beach, the road to LA28 isn't only about the Olympic Games.

From August 15–27, 2028, Los Angeles will host its first-ever Paralympic Games, and Long Beach will play a significant role.

Seven Paralympic sports and disciplines are scheduled for Long Beach: Blind Football, Para Canoe Sprint, Para Climbing, Para Rowing, Para Swimming, Shooting Para Sport and Sitting Volleyball. Para Climbing will also make its Paralympic debut at LA28.

That's a remarkable opportunity for our city, but it raises a question that goes beyond venues and competition schedules:

What does it mean for Long Beach to be truly Paralympic-ready?

More Than Accessibility

When thousands of athletes, families, spectators, volunteers and members of the international Paralympic community arrive in Southern California, their experience of Long Beach won't begin and end at a competition venue.

It will include hotels, restaurants, shops, transportation, sidewalks and public spaces. It will include websites, reservation systems, signage and wayfinding. It will include conversations with employees, volunteers and business owners.

In other words, accessibility isn't simply a compliance issue. It's part of the customer experience. That's where the opportunity gets particularly interesting for businesses.

Preparing for the Paralympic Games gives area businesses a reason to look at their customer experience through a different lens. Can everyone easily navigate our website? Understand our signage? Enter and move through our business? Make a reservation? Find the information they need? Feel genuinely welcomed by our staff?

Those are good questions for 2028. They're even better questions for today.

Seven Sports Worth Getting to Know

The Paralympic Games may also introduce many of us to sports we haven't followed closely before.

Each has its own athletes, rules, classifications and stories. And each gives Long Beach residents and businesses another opportunity to understand the Paralympic movement before the world arrives here.

That's something I plan to explore more over the next two years, because becoming a Paralympic host city shouldn't simply mean knowing where the events are being held. It should mean understanding the Games we're hosting.

An Opportunity That Lasts Beyond 2028

The best legacy of hosting the Paralympic Games won't necessarily be something we build specifically for those two weeks in August. It could be what we learn from them.

More accessible businesses. Better digital experiences. More thoughtful wayfinding. Employees who understand how to welcome customers with different needs. Greater awareness of adaptive sport, and a community that thinks differently about who gets to participate. Those improvements benefit residents and visitors long after the Paralympic flame goes out.

Over the coming months, I'll be exploring more about the Paralympic Games coming to Long Beach: the sports, the athletes, accessibility, business readiness and the opportunities for our community to participate.

How do we become a great Paralympic host city?