Excerpt
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Quemuel Arroyo lost the use of his legs after a biking accident in 2008 and spends most of his day in a wheelchair. But as a member of Adaptive Climbing Group, he’s found a way to leave his chair behind.
QUEMUEL ARROYO: It’s physical and it breaks down the fact that you’re disabled if you are able to be a rock climber and do it.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Adaptive Climbing Group brings climbers with mental and physical disabilities together to challenge themselves and each other.
QUEMUEL ARROYO: We push each other a lot, maybe too much. We’re really hard on each other because it’s like, ‘You can do it!’
HARI SREENIVASAN: Kareemah Batts founded the group two years ago. She lost part of her left leg to cancer.
KAREEMAH BATTS: You become unsatisfied with the aspects of your life from anything from walking to how you used to make the best or how you used to sweep the floor. I chose climbing because I had reached a plateau in my recovery. Rock climbing was one of the only sports that I had never done before and so I said, ‘That’s a good one, I‘m going to pick that one because if I can do it, than I have no more excuses. All assistive devices are on the ground and it’s just you and that wall.
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