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Adaptive Rock Wall Climbing

student in a wheelchair crossing the simulated rock climbing wall

Here’s a physical education activity that can be performed by students with visual impairments, blindness, and multiple disabilities. The activity is adapted from It Rocks, a game on the FlagHouse Website: http://www.flaghouse.com/PDF/ITROCKS.pdf.

  1. Cut out circles measuring two different diameters and divide them into four sets. Set A is one color and texture; Set B is another color and texture, and so on. Fleece, sandpaper, foam, corduroy, etc., can be used for the wall, and waffle grip placemats can be used on the floor.
  2. Place some circles on the floor and some on the wall (at varying heights). Circles can be attached to the wall with Elmer’s Removable Poster Tack.

Activity 1

Student picks two colors/textures to touch. Wheelchair users may use all four if needed. Moving across the wall, the "climber" always has to have one hand touching the wall; or he must return to the beginning and start over (he fell off the wall). The object is to go from start to finish touching the fewest number of circles–stretching your body as much as possible.

Activity 2

Two teams compete. Each team starts at an opposite end and each picks two colors/textures. They must pass each other–again having one hand on the wall at all times.

Submitted by Judy Hurst, West Virginia, November 2006