Lucy Shuker, an eight-time doubles finalist at Roland Garros, is a 44-year-old wheelchair tennis star. At 21, just 12 days after getting her licence, Shuker was paralysed from the chest down in a motorcycle accident. In an interview with AFP, the Briton points out that you really have to be disabled to understand certain things. Sometimes it is "frustrating" to have to ask for ramps at stations to get on and off trains.

Her message is optimistic. Shuker believes the world is moving in the right direction to make life more accessible for people with disabilities, but: "Let's keep striving for a better tomorrow than we had yesterday". She is currently chasing a fourth Paralympic medal in Paris and insists that "there are little things that people can do to make things a bit easier for us".

On Saturday, Shuker defeated France's Charlotte Fairbank 6-4, 7-5 on a packed Court 14 at Roland-Garros. Her comments come after the outrage of the previous week when legendary British Paralympic athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson had to crawl off a train because no one was available to help her at London's Kings Cross station and no ramp had been provided.

"Why aren't we able to have level access or something like that to get on and off? I've seen it in Australia where it's really easy. They have it on the subway. They've created stations that have ramps. So to me that's the direction we should be going in," she said.

Shuker was one of two flag bearers for the British team at the Paralympic Opening Ceremony. She wanted to highlight the sad reality and the urgency for things to improve.

"The world wasn't made for people with disabilities, but we also know we're in a world where we have to accommodate them because it's becoming much more common," she said. The statistics are alarming. Perhaps it's only when you hear them and see them that you fully realise the importance of things that are very simple to some people. In the UK, someone suffers a spinal cord injury every four hours.

"It is amazing how many people are going to be disabled at some point in their lives. So you have to make it easy for everyone," said Shuker.

The tennis player highlighted the power of the Paralympic Games as an "inspiring" element in the day-to-day lives of people. "I think it shows that people with disabilities have lives, want to have lives and have great lives. We also want to live as independently as possible, without having to ask for help," she said.

"Why do we have to exclude anybody? Why do we have to make it difficult for all of us or just for a few of us?" she added. Shuker recently had a high-profile visitor. She was honoured by King Charles III last year. Later, at Wimbledon this year, she was caught by an eagle-eyed photographer making a "pinky promise" with the monarch's granddaughter, Princess Charlotte. Shuker asked Princess Charlotte if they had tried wheelchair tennis.

"She said no. And I said, "Pinky promise to play with me someday. Because, you know, you don't have to have a disability to try the sport. And I think it just opens people's eyes to what it feels like, how difficult it is," she said.