BENGALURU: What does it take to have an adventure? An adventurous spirit. #EverydayAbility, an event organised by Adventure Beyond Barriers Foundations and Firefox Bikes across India, sees persons with disability and able-bodied people taking part in adventurous sports such as wall-climbing, rappelling and slacklining.
The Bengaluru edition will be held at Equilibrium Climbing Station, Indiranagar, today.
Organisers say that the interest has been overwhelming and that they have a waiting list of participants. At the city event, there will be persons with different kinds of disabilities including amputees, paraplegics, blind, deaf and people with muscular atrophy. They fall between the 14 to 30 year age group.
The one hurdle was in finding a venue in this city.
“There are not many facilities in Bangalore that are inclusive, and this is one of the key challenges when we are conducting this event. At places where accessibility is an issue, we will need to create ramps and portable toilets,” says Divyanshu Ganatra, founder of ABBF, which is non-profit that makes adaptive and inclusive adventure sports possible through various events and programmes. Divyanshu, who lost his eyesight at 19 years to galucoma, started ABBF in 2014, after becoming the first Indian to paraglide solo.
He insists that there are no challenges in organising such events. “There is a misconception that persons with disabilities can’t take up adventure sports. However the events we organise are contained and not extreme outdoor adventure sports event,” says Divyanshu, who believes that the participants are confident because they know of the safety procedures ABBF follows.
Divyanshu, who has worked as a techie and is a social entrepreneur, says that it is important to have corporate and other large organisations “buying into the cause”. Firefox Bikes is partnering with this event through its CSR wing.