With each Paralympics, the levels of participation and performance have increased tremendously, and so it was with the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta. For the first time, athletes with an intellectual disability took part. 56 athletes with an intellectual disability participated in Athletics and Swimming.

The 1996 Atlanta Paralympics were also the first to attract worldwide corporate sponsorship. But the Games were more than an international sporting event. The third Paralympic Congress, held four days before the competitions, focused on the theme of political and economic empowerment of people with disabilities as well as global issues in elite sport. The Congress brought together leaders of the disability civil rights community, the disabled sports movement and their able-bodied counterparts.