Understanding the Body Expertise of Adaptive Rock Climbers

This study utilizes participatory ethnography to investigate what constitutes the expertise involved in adaptive climbing sports, that is, the techniques and technologies employed by climbers with physical disabilities in indoor rock climbing. Approaching disability as a "relational category," this study elucidates the meaning of "adaptive" by examining the diverse landscapes of expertise enacted by different human and non-human actants, particularly in the realms of body, gear, and place-making. Through an analysis of material assemblages and constructed perceptions at sites of corporeal connections among climbers, volunteers, aid-climbing technologies, and artificial rock walls, this study interprets the expertise as an interactive phenomenon and advocates for the importance of community building.