Gary Dunn, September’s Joan Crawford Lecture Series presenter, told last Wednesday night’s audience at Garrett College that adaptive and inclusive outdoor adventure activities should be “empowering” for participants.
An estimated 1-in-4 adult U.S. citizens has a disability that affects their daily life, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Gary Dunn works with two adaptive and inclusive outdoor organizations whose missions involve supporting people with disabilities in living their best life.
Dunn – a lead instructor with a pair of Colorado-based outdoor adventure businesses – was Garrett College’s first Joan Crawford Lecture Series fall semester presenter last Wednesday night. Dunn said both Paradox Sports and No Barriers focus on “defying the perception that people with a ‘disability’ cannot lead a life of adventure.”
Paradox Sports offers accessible climbing opportunities for people with differing abilities and is also working to expand the availability of accessible climbing options nationwide.
“We go around the country, mainly to climbing gyms or outdoor facilities, to talk with them about working with people with disabilities in the climbing environment and how to get a climbing program going,” said Dunn, who’s helped provide 120 courses and 70 trips in 30 states working with Paradox.
No Barriers was founded by Eric Weihenmayer, the first blind climber to reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 2001. Seven years later, Weihenmayer climbed Carstensz Pyramid on the island of Papua New Guinea to complete the “Seven Summits” – reaching the highest point on every continent.
The Baltimore-based Dunn said the No Barriers mission is to “provide transformative programs and experiences that shift mindsets, create belonging, and foster self-discovery to elevate individuals and their communities.” He noted No Barriers serves veterans, adults with disabilities, caregivers, inner-city students, and children of fallen veterans and first responders.
Two specific No Barriers programs for people of all abilities that Dunn highlighted were Summit and What’s Your Everest?
“Summit is a three- or four-day event to get people of all abilities out and doing all kinds of crazy things,” said Dunn. “There’s rock-climbing, paddle boarding . . . almost anything outdoors you could want to do will probably happen at one of the summits.”
Dunn said What’s your Everest? participants “did about a two-mile hike up a trail right outside of Boulder” that included “getting people to try new adaptive equipment.”
Dunn said high-quality adaptive and inclusive outdoor activities see participants with disabilities “as partners, not passengers.”
“We talk about not having a ‘circus-ride mentality,’ ” said Dunn. “We like to empower people to do as much as they can. We teach them how to put on their harness, how to tie a figure-8 – teach them how to be as much a part of the system as they can.”
Dunn said that philosophy is capable of “changing the dynamic of the activity,” using a trip that included Garrett College Professor Andy Hershey as an example.
“We had a participant who climbed, was injured, and came back out climbing,” recalled Dunn. “At the end of the trip, he gave us what I thought was the ultimate compliment: ‘This wasn’t a trip for people with disabilities; this was a climbing trip.’”
Notes: Garrett College’s faculty created the Joan Crawford Lecture Series in honor of the dynamic educator Joan R. Crawford.
Crawford, who died in 2010, served the College community for more than 30 years, including serving as the head of the humanities division and director of enrollment. After her retirement, Crawford was named Professor Emerita.
The Joan Crawford Lecture Series of presentations are offered free of charge, and the public and community members are invited to attend.
All presentations from the Joan Crawford Lecture Series will be available to view online through the College’s YouTube page.
For more information, contact Stephanie Miller at stephanie.miller@garrettcollege.edu.
