Hamou Bouakkaz, Advisor to the Mayor of Paris, spoke at the CIEE Study Center in Paris in December 2007, on French and American attitudes concerning disabilities. Mr Bouakkaz – who is blind – was able to use his personal experience and insight to elucidate ideas about society, health, and difference.
“The U.S.,” said Mr Bouakkaz, “is a competitive society. It’s like a game. So for the handicapped person, you adapt the rules so they can compete too. The question in the U.S. is always, ‘What are your special needs?’
“In France, on the other hand, until recent years the attitude was very much influenced by a Catholic notion of compassion and pity. So you have lots of compassion. You have a social life – but not autonomy.” For the able-bodied in France, said Mr Bouakkaz, “the disabled person is not seen as a person, but as a way of showing whether you are good or not good. The disabled person is like a test of your goodness.”
The audience for Mr Bouakkaz’s talk was made up of students CIEE’s Contemporary French Studies (CFS) program. The CFS Intercultural Communication class had just studied Michael Moore’s film Sicko, a critique of the U.S. health system which lauds French free universal health care. It was a surprise for students to discover that in the realm of attitudes to the handicapped, the French have much to learn from the U.S. example.
“France is a very normative society,” said Mr Bouakkaz. “In that context the disabled person is a ‘mistake.’ A mistake is something you try to correct. So the disabled person should be healed. Or, if they’re not going towards health, then they are going towards death. Until recently, there was no concept that you can live with the disability – and that the environment can be altered to make this possible.” The U.S. notion of 
‘access,’ Mr Bouakkaz sees as something to be emulated.
In terms of access, “we are twenty years behind the U.S.A.,” said Mr Bouakkaz. “The Library of Congress is 100% accessible. Books are available in Braille. In France, only books that are more than 50 years old are available in Braille.”
“Of course, Paris is an old city, and it is conservative in many ways, so there are not many buildings with special entrances. Now there is pressure to modify that.” In France recent laws impose an accessible Paris by 2015. Activism has begun to change attitudes, and the society is “moving more in the direction of the North American and Northern European notion of equalizing opportunity.”
As an example, Mr Bouakkaz brought up the questions posed by French medial evaluators. “The question asked on the medical evaluation of your handicap used to be, ‘What can’t you do?’ Recently, the question was changed to ‘What do you want to do?’ Now, the medical evaluation focuses on the life project of the disabled person – not his disability.”
Mr Bouakkaz’s remarks were complemented by remarks sent to the event from Dr Frédérique Bilal, who is paraplegic and has lived extensively in both the France and the U.S. “In the U.S.A. there is a certain individual indifference [to the disabled] but a collective responsibility,” wrote Dr Bilal. “In France it’s the opposite. Individually there are reactions of empathy, but they are sporadic – and not sufficient to make up for the collective indifference.”
The event was organized by Dr. Hannah Taieb, Resident Director of the Contemporary French Studies program, who has worked with Mr Bouakkaz in the context of the CIEE International Faculty Development Seminar on Muslims in Europe. Mr Bouakkaz functions in the Mayor’s office are two-fold: he is Technical Advisor in charge of the inclusion of Handicapped People in the Life of the City and Special Advisor on questions concerning Islam. It was a rare honor for the CFS program to have a visitor whose role in the life of the city is so significant – and who brought a wealth of personal insight, intuition, and warmth to the event.