About Adaptive Climbing Group
Our Mission
Adaptive Climbing Group creates accessible, affordable, and transformational climbing opportunities for people with disabilities.
Our Story
Adaptive Climbing Group began with a simple idea: people with disabilities should have meaningful opportunities to experience climbing, build community, and pursue the sport at whatever level they choose.
After losing her leg to cancer, ACG founder Kareemah Batts discovered climbing during her own recovery. What began as a personal connection to the sport grew into a larger question: how could more people with disabilities have access to climbing and the community surrounding it?
On March 15, 2012, Adaptive Climbing Group held its first clinic in Brooklyn, New York, welcoming 38 participants with disabilities.
That first clinic became a community.
Over the years, ACG expanded from recurring indoor climbing sessions to outdoor climbing, youth programming, competitive paraclimbing support, education and training, and locally led adaptive climbing communities across the United States.
What We've Built
Today, ACG serves thousands of participants annually through climbing experiences designed for a wide range of disabilities, ages, experience levels, and goals.
Our programs include indoor climbing, outdoor climbing experiences, youth programming, community events, and support and development opportunities for competitive paraclimbers.
Since 2017, ACG has operated the first training camp of its kind for competitive paraclimbers and the longest-running paraclimbing training camp in the United States.
Keeping climbing financially accessible remains central to our work. Through partnerships, fundraising, volunteers, and community support, ACG is able to offer free, discounted, and donation-based programming while reducing some of the financial barriers that can prevent disabled people from participating in climbing.
More Than Access to the Wall
Our work has always extended beyond getting someone onto a climbing wall.
ACG has helped climbing gyms, outdoor organizations, volunteers, coaches, and communities better understand how to welcome and support disabled climbers. This has included helping develop approaches to adaptive climbing in gyms, outdoors, and competitive environments, as well as creating On and Off the Wall, ACG's disability etiquette education.
Our regional communities are locally led, with disabled leaders and leaders of color playing central roles throughout the organization.
We believe sustainable adaptive climbing communities are built with disabled people—not simply for them.
Where We're Going
More than a decade after our first clinic, ACG continues to expand what participation in climbing can look like.
We're building stronger regional communities, developing pathways for the next generation of adaptive climbers and leaders, supporting athletes pursuing competitive paraclimbing, and working with climbing gyms and industry partners to make accessibility part of how climbing communities operate.
The goal isn't simply to create more adaptive climbing events.
It's to build a climbing community where disabled people have opportunities to participate, lead, compete, explore, and belong.
Our Nonprofit
Adaptive Climbing Group is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization governed by a volunteer Board of Directors.
EIN: 85-1718523
ACG regularly organizes indoor climbing sessions in Chicago, Massachusetts, and New York, where we foster an inclusive and supportive community for climbers of all skill levels.
ACG arranges multiple outdoor climbing trips every year, catering to climbers of all ages and abilities on both rock and ice. These events are led by professional guide partners and are designed to be affordable and accessible to all.
Apart from our usual indoor activities, we also arrange group events targeting young climbers, encouraging parents, friends, and other family members to attend and participate.
Our organization provides sponsorship opportunities for competitive adaptive climbers nationwide through three levels. We offer various forms of assistance, including gear costs, training, competition registrations, and more, tailored to individual needs.
