Creating Accessible Travel Experiences with Kristin Secor
In this episode, disability policy advisor Kristina Ericson (Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council) shares how growing up in a disability-forward household led her to a career shaping accessibility policy, safeguarding Medicaid home- and community-based services, and stress-testing legislation through a disability rights lens. Kristina explains the DD Act, why the ADA is just a baseline, and how state-level advocacy translates to real improvements in health care, trail access, and inclusive outdoor recreation. If you’ve wondered how macro policy decisions affect everyday access—from medical supports to ski resort elevators—this is your playbook.
Kristina also co-founded the Adaptive Climbers Festival (ACF), a four-day, community-first paraclimbing gathering that blends clinics (from beginner to advanced), ASL-led instruction, adaptive slacklining, and shared meals into a model of belonging. We dig into the nuts and bolts of accessible event design (from gravel and bathrooms to service-animal planning), why cost is the biggest barrier in adaptive sports, and how partnerships with brands (e.g., REI, The North Face) can drive universal design gear that actually works for wheelchair users, blind climbers, amputees, and neurodivergent athletes. Gym owners and race directors will leave with concrete ideas—quiet hours, better inclusive language, real accommodation workflows, and outreach beyond “if you need something, let us know”—to turn accessibility from an afterthought into the standard.
Brendan Aylward (00:00.323)
All right, welcome to the AdaptX podcast where we have conversations with individuals building accessible businesses, advocating for inclusion or excelling in adaptive sports. Our intention is never to speak on behalf of those with disabilities, but to provide a platform to share their voice and amplify their ideas for a more accessible world.
Today I'm joined by Christina Erickson, a disability policy advisor for the state of Colorado and a co-founder and director of the Adaptive Climbers Festival, an annual nonprofit rock climbing event for the para-climbing community. Her work centers around knocking down macro-level accessibility barriers through policy and systems changed. She has lived in more than a dozen countries, is an NYC AmeriCorps alum, and lives in the mountains above Denver, where she enjoys hiking, backpacking, and climbing.
I think Christina sorry I'm looking at some different things on my screen here Christina thanks for thanks for joining me today. So I'd like to I guess start with how you got into the field as a whole I think most of us have some sort of experience that was was transformative so what influence you do initially pursue a career in accessibility and social work.
Kristina Ericson (00:51.362)
Good.
Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me.
Kristina Ericson (01:11.982)
Yeah, mine wasn't like a standalone event or experience. would say, experience, yeah. I'm the daughter of disabled people. yeah, a lifelong front row seat to many, many, many of the disability or accessibility barriers that exist in this country. My dad in particular has a C7 spinal cord injury. So that's like pretty upper level, broke his neck way before I was born. So was very much, I grew up in a
very disability friendly household. Accessibility was something we talked about at the dinner table. ADA was something that I learned about as a kid because you had to, as well as like learning about barriers as a kid was something that, yeah, you had to. If like, dad's not at your Little League game today because the Little League field isn't accessible, like can't get here. And so I always say that it pissed me off enough that I created it, made a career out of it. So.
That's really the long and the short of why I'm in it. It's because there are millions of families just like mine all over this country who are still facing the same inaccessible little league fields or whatever else 30 years later that I did.
Brendan Aylward (02:24.889)
How do you view that from impacting your local community versus enacting systematic change and addressing global barriers?
Kristina Ericson (02:35.994)
Mm, that's a good one. I think both are important. So I work on state level policy work right now. I'm a policy advisor for specifically for Colorado's Developmental Disabilities Council, which as kind of like the quick aside on that is we have a really cool act here in the United States called the Developmental Disabilities Act or the DD Act. Its original iteration was originally signed by JFK. So it's been around for a minute. It's a really cool act that just says,
People with intellectual developmental disabilities have rights and the right to be included and the right to be protected in this country and the right to do what they want. And as a part of that act, every state is required to have what we call a DD council that fights for the rights of people with intellectual developmental disabilities. So I specifically do policy work on behalf of that council here in the state of Colorado. And I think that every...
Every single law that I work on here in the state or every single measure, every single thing I do on a macro level hits the micro. know, if I'm like right now, we're working on a lot of legislation or we're evolving around Medicaid and potential cuts and budget cuts to Medicaid, which directly impacts how, you know, my neighbors down the street can get care or like can have someone come help them eat a meal. So.
I know if that answers your question, but it's all connected. There's no real, I don't view it as a divide because every law that's passed in the country hits every American.
Brendan Aylward (04:00.249)
Yeah, no it does.
Brendan Aylward (04:09.357)
Yeah, absolutely. No, I'm interested. It's outside of my scope of knowledge. So if you care to educate me a bit more, what is that legislative process like? Are you conducting focus groups to identify challenges? What's the step-by-step process of what you do on a day-to-day basis?
Kristina Ericson (04:15.15)
Yeah.
Thank
Kristina Ericson (04:25.421)
Okay.
Kristina Ericson (04:31.02)
Yeah, totally. So I, in my role, I don't have lobbying power. So I work with a lot of state legislators, representatives, senators here on the state level. But I am like this education bank. I'm a state employee, and I'm really just there to be like, hey, I see that you're passing this law that's going to hit or it's going to impact health care. It's going to impact trail accessibility. It's going to impact whatever.
I you, bet you 10 bucks you're not thinking about the disability community or like, really, really don't think you've thought about it enough. So that's really my job is just education of like, hey, like if you, know like Medicaid takes a lot of money and if you need to make budget cuts, that's an easy like, whoa, they have money, but here's where that money's going. And that's who, this is who it's supporting in the state. And you know, these are the communities that are able to live outside of an institution because they have Medicaid. Like that's pretty rad.
So I'm really just there as like this annoying little fly on the wall. This is kind of how I view my career. Just to be like, did you think about disabled people today? No? Great. We're going to do that now.
Brendan Aylward (05:25.646)
Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (05:35.097)
Did you get into that line of work, I guess? Was there a segue between what you studied in university and how you end up in that position? there steps along the way?
Kristina Ericson (05:50.702)
Yeah, definitely steps along the way. I definitely, I never thought I would be, as I think a lot of people, I never thought I would be doing this as my career and I absolutely love it. I think growing up within the disability community and being raised by disabled people, I just viewed, like to me disability is just really normal. Like that's just how people exist. And I think it took, and this speaks a lot to my own privilege, it took me a very long time to realize like, no, like disability advocacy is something.
that you can build a career out of and specifically accessibility, as you see, and it is something that more people need to be locked in with. I went to a very strange undergrad program, it's called Global College. It's a four year study abroad program. So I lived all over the world, lived out of a backpack. I thought I was gonna be a lawyer. I wanted to do like human rights, environmental rights law. And in that process, like all my field work, all my like, you know,
out in the bush somewhere where I just kept like defaulting back to disability. Like I did a lot of my research on fossil fuel extraction and how specifically that impacts local communities. And I would be like out in the fields of Uganda, like in an oil field and be there like asking all these disability questions and people would be like, what are you talking about? Like we're not, like that's not your job. And so I think it just, that happened enough that it kind of became my job.
and then right after college, I was an AmeriCorps fellow for an immigration and refugee advocacy rights organization in New York. And Donald Trump became the president for his first time while I was there. And it was like, shit hit the fan. Sorry for swearing on your podcast, but, it really did. And it was terrifying and it was extra terrifying for refugee and immigrant families.
Brendan Aylward (07:36.057)
It's okay.
Kristina Ericson (07:43.896)
who needed disability services, right? Like it's scary to be, to have to leave your country. It's extra scary if you have a kid who's disabled or an older, you know, a parent who's older or somebody in a wheelchair, insert the blank here. And it was doing that work that I realized like, I wanna do disability work and I wanna really kind of dive into that. And I had already been working in the para-climbing community and I like was, I mean.
just due to my family already really involved in the disability rights space. And yeah, I went and got my master's in social work and was like, we're just gonna do disability from here on out. Turns out I can already speak the language and know, you know, like I know the ADA is like in and out already. Makes it really easy.
Brendan Aylward (08:28.609)
Yeah, yeah, Probably too broad of a question, but you've traveled all over the world. What is accessibility and inclusion like in those different demographics? Like, is it on everyone's radar or is it ignored in some? Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (08:36.035)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (08:45.362)
Not at all. It's, disability is an afterthought everywhere. That's, very unfortunately, a universal experience. Some countries are better than others. Like here in the United States, we have the Americans with Disabilities Act. We have the DD Act. We have these, like, beasts of federal laws that provide bare bones basic rights to people with disabilities, but the vast majority of countries don't have anything.
There's a lot stigma, like the stigma around disability and the social barriers to disability, like how a disabled person is welcomed into a room or a space or anywhere out in public. That changes drastically by culture, by country. You know, it's not great here in the US, but it's also not like weird to see somebody with Down syndrome or a dude in a wheelchair coming down the street.
Whereas in other countries, it's like shied away and you don't, it's like a, it's a very much like don't ask don't tell policy if you have a disabled kid. yeah. It's not.
Brendan Aylward (09:49.325)
Have you, mean, you were exposed to it all through childhood and adolescence, obviously through your family, but have you found what makes people more comfortable and confident interacting with people with disabilities? That's something that we think about a lot, like in the gym space. Like my gym was designed with disability in mind, so all my members know what they're signing up for. But when you go into an environment where people with disabilities don't currently exist and you try to welcome them in, I...
Kristina Ericson (10:05.07)
Totally.
Kristina Ericson (10:17.614)
Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (10:18.143)
I envision the greater community being like, why is that person with autism in here? Like, I haven't seen that before. I haven't seen someone in a wheelchair before. We think exposure is one of the best educational tools, but what do you think needs to be done, I guess, to make an environment like a fitness gym or an athletics, like, paragliding and stuff? What makes people more comfortable around disabilities, I guess?
Kristina Ericson (10:27.064)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (10:42.296)
way.
Kristina Ericson (10:46.008)
Totally. just, from my experience, used to be a climbing gym manager. so I've worked in the fitness space. You just have to be open about it. We used to do, I used to plan a lot of accessible climbing classes, like basic instructional classes, teach a class in ASL, teach a class where there's, we'll make it really long so people can take their time and learn and we can fall in way that you're gonna fall kind of a thing. And when I...
first started working there, I got quite a bit of pushback from other people who managed the company of like, why do we need to do that? Like, like, the building's ADA compliant, it's new. And I'm like, that doesn't mean shit, actually, like, there's still no people with disabilities in there. But if it is really one of those, like if you built it, they'll come like, if you have somebody who's like yourself, like when I was there, it was like, if you have somebody who's just comfortable saying the word disabled.
Brendan Aylward (11:31.213)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (11:45.27)
And as they're thinking about it, it ripple effects into everyone else. And I think that's the biggest thing. Disability is really scary for a lot of people. And most people aren't thinking about it because they've trained themselves not to think about it. It's this gross, terrifying, whatever thing to so many people. in reality, it's super normal. It impacts everyone. Your odds of being disabled are pretty high at some point in your life. Just normalizing it, I think.
Brendan Aylward (11:59.905)
right
Brendan Aylward (12:09.101)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (12:15.31)
builds, opens that door for a lot more people. I'm also a stickler for stats and like whenever I would get hit with like, yeah, like why are we doing an autism class? And I'm like, well, one in 150 babies is more, you know, like really just like let numbers fly because people don't realize how normal it is either.
Brendan Aylward (12:17.977)
Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (12:29.349)
Yes.
Brendan Aylward (12:35.145)
Yeah, I think that the idea that inclusion can be a viable part of a business often isn't really talked about either. My gym is successful because of our clients with disabilities, not in spite of them. They're not a charitable component of our business. They're a legitimate piece of our business model. You mentioned if you build it, they will come, but I think you do have to go a step beyond that. I could envision in climbing...
Kristina Ericson (12:42.926)
Okay.
Kristina Ericson (12:48.27)
for the day.
Kristina Ericson (13:01.283)
Thank
Brendan Aylward (13:03.297)
a lot of people with disabilities probably aren't like, let me find a climbing gym in my area, because they just assume that that's not something accessible to them. So there's probably some degree of direct outreach and being like, we would love for you to come try this out. And we have the staff and the interest in doing so. Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (13:11.788)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (13:19.118)
Totally. And climbing, as well as in a lot of sports, that's very just like almost solely nonprofit driven or like, like independently organized group driven. I would not say that the climbing industry is, I would say that the climbing industry is very far behind on building that themselves, creating an accessible space or offering accessibility in some regard that's not driven by a nonprofit. Same thing here. I do a lot of outdoor accessibility policy work.
and like we just wrapped up this whole working group on ski resort accessibility, it's the same thing. It's like these companies are like, what do you mean we have to have the elevators working? And I'm like, well, turns out, like there's people getting us the stairs here. yeah, so I totally agree with you.
Brendan Aylward (13:58.822)
Yeah.
What are the biggest challenges that you face in designing outdoor sports that are accessible, whether it's climbing, I guess, indoor or outdoor?
Kristina Ericson (14:14.958)
The biggest challenges? Oof. Finances is honestly the biggest hurdle. With ACF, the Adaptive Climbers Festival, the financial barrier to outdoor sports is our biggest accessibility barrier. Outdoor sports are really expensive. I grew up around the adaptive ski community and that's like, it's 15 grand for a sit ski, where it's like, you can get a used pair of standard skis for like...
couple hundred bucks. Like it's the discrepancy, the cost discrepancy is just wild. And that's the biggest one. I'd also say, like, definitely accessibility outside, right? Like a lot of trails, campgrounds, things like that. There's like, kind of your standard accessibility barriers. I would say like the biggest accessibility barriers for us are more on the social end of like a lot of people
Like we have so many climbers come to ACF every year and they'll sign up for a class and be like, like, I'm going to sign up for this, but you can kick me out if you need to. And I'm like, why would I kick you out? And they're like, well, I was told that I couldn't do this before. I'm like, hon, no, you can't. Like you were just talking to a shitty human before. I'm like, no, like that's, it's a lot of just breaking down that stick.
Brendan Aylward (15:27.801)
Mm.
Yes.
Brendan Aylward (15:37.153)
So would you say there hasn't been a cognitive or physical barrier that you've been able to navigate?
Kristina Ericson (15:44.377)
Hmm, that's a good one. We are very firm believers and I am a very firm believer in like a little bit of elbow grease and some fuck around find out mentality can get you pretty far, especially in the outdoors. honestly every physical barrier we've over we've jumped to the best of our ability. Has it been pretty or perfectly ADA compliant? No. I'd say like
Brendan Aylward (15:55.065)
Mmm.
Kristina Ericson (16:12.27)
Honestly, the biggest thing that's coming to my mind, I'm really racking my head, the biggest thing that's coming to my mind is like a lot of the, like we run ACF out in the back, what's it Kentucky out in like, we rent a really cool campground out there every year. And like the biggest thing is that like the roads are gravel, and like wheelchairs and gravel and walkers and gravel just suck. That's really the biggest thing. It's like, just like basic things that you'll find anywhere, like gravel, grass, like those kind of suck. We can't really like mitigate a ton of it.
Brendan Aylward (16:29.305)
That'll go well. Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (16:42.988)
Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (16:44.011)
Yeah, so Adaptive Climbers Festival is how I was first introduced to your work. So do you want to tell the audience a little bit about what that consists of? Beyond just like people come and they climb, like maybe all components of it, from the social piece to the physical piece.
Kristina Ericson (16:48.974)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (16:52.718)
I sure do.
Kristina Ericson (16:57.294)
Totally. Totally. People come when they climb is like a pretty strong part of what we do. So it's an annual four day festival. We started in 2018. And it is for climbers with disabilities to come out. We camp, we have a whole kitchen crew, we eat home cooked meals together. We offer like 30 different educational clinics that run from like, I've never rock climbed before. My friend dragged me along. I don't know what I'm doing up to like more advanced.
Brendan Aylward (17:02.741)
Yes.
Kristina Ericson (17:26.732)
backcountry clinics, repelling, aid climbing, track climbing, like these pretty more advanced techniques and technical clinics. We also do like adaptive slacklining, we have adaptive first aid, we have adaptive yoga, like we've got the works. And it's, it's awesome. It's really, my dad calls it woodstop for wheelchairs. It's really just like this, this gathering place for
disabled people of all ways, shapes and forms all over the disability community to come together and say like, yeah, like, I'm still a climber. I'm still an outdoors person. I am like, this is a part of my identity, or it can be a part of my identity that maybe there was a time in my life where I didn't think that. There's also just such power. There's power in community and there's power in representation. Like all of our classes are taught by disabled people.
And it's like, it's one thing to go into a gym and be like the one person with a visible disability in your gym and be like, well, this is isolating and I don't really want to take a class or I was told I couldn't take the class because the instructor didn't know what do with me or whatever. And we've heard every excuse in the book. And then to come to ACF and be like, no, you can not only take the class, but like the person teaching the class also has a spinal cord injury or also with a TBI. And they're going to teach you like
exactly how to do this and what to do. So it's, it's awesome. We really, the kind of a purpose, the catalyst for starting it was the Paraclimb community is really tight knit and years ago, back in 2017, 2018, a group of friends and I kind of went in the Paraclimb world. We looked around and we're like, you know, this is like every Paraclimbing event is like a big family reunion, like
like competitions, like park taco trucks outside at the bar, you know, we like turn it into a party. But it's also like people are like at a competition, they're like fighting against each other for a spot on a team. And it's very cutthroat. And it's a very weird vibe. Like, very weird dynamic. like, so we were like, what if we just threw the family reunion? And that's really what it is to this day. Yeah, it's awesome.
Brendan Aylward (19:43.971)
Do you find that a lot of the people that you attract, were they former climbers who experienced a traumatic injury and they're trying to kind of reclaim that identity? Are they people that have been disabled their entire life and they're looking to kind of get into the sport?
Kristina Ericson (19:53.342)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (20:01.046)
Yeah, it is a blend of all the above. We have people who were born with their disabilities or were disabled at a really young age, have spent their whole life with a disability. We have people who entered into disability land like two months ago and are just like, know, deer in the headlights, like, I don't know what to do now kind of a thing. We have a lot of former climbers. We have a lot of people who were injured while climbing and are coming back to that. have everything, every...
part mix and match of that puzzle, which is awesome too, because like, not only can you like come and sign up for a class and like learn from someone, like if you're, we have a lot of people who are very new to disability world, right? Like they just lost their leg, they just had their amputation and they come to ACF and it's like, not only are you automatically, all of a you're around like 40 other amputees, those amputees are the ones teaching your classes, they're the ones talking to you about gear, we have a team of prositists on staff, like.
You know, it's like this very cool mentorship of like, you know, we have these baby disabled climbers with like, para climbers who have been doing it for like 50 years. We're like, hey kid, let's take you up your wing. So there's a lot of mentorship involved in ACF too.
Brendan Aylward (21:15.523)
Do people without disabilities ever participate and kind of learn in those clinics?
Kristina Ericson (21:19.822)
We have people without disabilities can sign up to volunteer. We also have non-disabled caregivers plus ones, people who come to like, they'll come with their husband or their wife, whoever, their friend and help them get around. But ACF is very like for para climbers by para climbers. If you are not disabled, you are not allowed to sign up for a clinic. We're pretty elitist of that one regard.
Brendan Aylward (21:43.009)
Yeah. I'm trying to draw some parallels between the road races that we're organizing. What do you ask applicants about their disability? what's your process of not vetting is not the word, but gathering the requisite information?
Kristina Ericson (21:52.713)
god. Totally.
Kristina Ericson (21:58.766)
Hmm.
That's a really good question. Yeah, that's a really good question and I'm happy to like send you our our sign up information if you ever just want to look at it. One thing that we are very, just our ethic at ACF is very strong in we never want to grill you on your disability. So many people with disabilities are forced to fit themselves into a box, right? Check which box, which area of disability are you?
Brendan Aylward (22:10.317)
Yeah, it'd be cool. Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (22:29.006)
when in reality disability is this wacky wild spectrum and most people don't fit in. have 40 % of AC uppers cannot check a box of like, this is my diagnosis. They're just disabled and they just don't know how to describe it. And that's very, very normal. And we also don't, to us, the only reason we ask people, hey, can you tell us a little bit more about your disability? That's how we word it. Tell us what you mean.
Cause we don't want to pry. Like somebody's diagnosis is not my business. Somebody's, you know, how they lost their leg or how they broke their neck. Like that's none of my business, but you know, just tell me like, do you use a power chair or a manual chair? Do you have an above me amputee? Are you an above me amputee or a baloney? Like are you, you say you're blind. Like is that full blindness? Are we like, where are we on that spectrum? And that's really just so that I know how to plan for you. Other than that.
I don't mean to know. If you identify as disabled, you're welcome at ACF and that's like kind of just where we draw it.
Brendan Aylward (23:35.681)
Yeah, we ask, like, what accommodations can we provide for you? Or like, what accommodations can we provide for you? Yeah. Yep. Yep.
Kristina Ericson (23:43.01)
And that's really, that's really it. We ask people what of mobility device are you bringing or like you bring in a service dog. We word it like that. Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (23:50.923)
Yeah. Yep. One thing we're trying to do is...
Like prize purses for different adaptive categories. So that's one I guess that's one reason why we do have to try to define things so we do ask people if they would like to be recognized in the amputee or hand cycle or push rim wheelchair or Visual impairment category in which case like if they want to compete for that prize or that category then they can select it but they can also choose not to If they would just like to be recognized in the overall results
Kristina Ericson (24:05.326)
Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (24:26.683)
So, yeah, figuring out, guess, how to... And then that's tricky because even, as you know, with an amputee, there's above knee and below knee, and the mechanics are completely different and different advantages and disadvantages with each. So, it's hard to... But then you're getting into having categories for every subset of disability, and you're not going to have first, second, third place represented in every subset. So, yeah, try and navigate some of those questions. Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (24:27.341)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (24:40.611)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (24:51.566)
Totally, Climbing's the same way. Yeah. Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (24:57.017)
So you grew up with disability, so you've always been astutely aware about it. Did having a parent who was disabled, was it socially isolating in any way? Were your peers inquisitive about your home dynamic? Because I would imagine it was unique compared to most of your friends. I guess, what was that like, I guess, growing up?
Kristina Ericson (25:01.528)
God.
Kristina Ericson (25:19.372)
Absolutely.
Absolutely. That's a good question. I think to the social isolation part, I don't think so because my dad did everything in his power to make sure that like, no, like we're gonna go be rowdy and we're gonna go do like whatever you think the dude in the wheelchair is not gonna do like Steve's out there doing it. And so I think I just grew up with that kind of mentality. Like I grew up Northern California. So I grew up.
and and climbing and doing ocean sports and hiking and doing all these things. my dad was the one taking me to do all those things. Even if he couldn't make it past the trailhead, he would sit in his car and just wait. We were always, he really pushed us to do that. And so I don't think it was socially isolating. But we also grew up around other people with disabilities and their kids. that disability community is a great way to break isolation.
To inquisitive peers, absolutely. Kids are so innately curious about anything outside of their norm. Like if there's somebody that does not look like they're, you know, the person in their house, it like blows their minds and they have a thousand questions. So I have been grilled, I have been asked every question under the sun about how my dad like lives his life, exists, eats, gets around, like so many questions.
And I learned probably by like third or fourth grade to just really like be like, hey dude, I'm not asking that about your dad. Don't ask it about mine. Like I learned pretty young, but yeah, up until, I mean, I still get it every once in a while, but I'd say like up through middle school, was like really like people want to know like what happened to your dad? Why do you like that? What, you know, and it's like, it's a pretty traumatic story. it's not like, we don't like love talking about it in my family. So yeah.
Brendan Aylward (27:12.505)
Right.
Yeah
Kristina Ericson (27:18.198)
you learn pretty quickly how to navigate it and like give the elevator pitches for it.
Brendan Aylward (27:24.217)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, you've organized a lot of successful events between climbing and you organized events for the gym that you used to work at as well, right? That weren't exclusive to climbing. What have you learned about hosting an inclusive and accessible event?
Kristina Ericson (27:34.478)
is yeah. Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (27:42.42)
that's a good one. My, biggest thing I've learned is that accessibility means something different to every single person. And that's not even like to non-disabled people too. Like accessibility is something we all benefit from and we all benefit from it in a different way. So like kind of going back to like how we asked people, how people register for ACF, we ask you like, what accommodation do you need? Let me know. And then we'll work from there. Cause yeah, that's the biggest thing. You can't just like...
There's no one size fits all accommodation for people. And there's always going to be someone who still has an issue or something, you know, something's going to go wrong. I think that's the biggest thing. And then I think the other thing I've learned too is yeah, just really keep that open door mentality. Like, like people with disabilities are isolated in so many corners of the society and the world that we live in. Like create a space where no
that's not going to happen. Create a space, it's like, hey dude, I'm so happy you're here. Like, thank you for being here. That I think has been the biggest transformative part about ACF for so many people is like, disability is the central focus. And at the same time, it's not because everybody's disabled, but like, yeah, everyone's welcome. And I think that's the biggest thing we've learned. like...
Brendan Aylward (29:07.405)
How has the event grown and kind of expanded over the last six years?
Kristina Ericson (29:14.767)
gosh, so much. When we first started in 2018, we had 30 people and it was like, we were at like a campground in Alabama and we started it with like a hope and a prayer. I think we maybe had a flyer. It was like a very like slapped together kind of thing. And we originally planned the festival to move around different major climbing areas around the country with the thought of like, you know, let's go work with other landowners, other, you know, places of access and property owners and public lands and whoever.
and work with them on what accessibility is. Let's bring the disabled community to them and say like, hey, here's where your barriers are and how can we help? And we did that for the first two years. We started in Alabama, we moved to Arkansas and we had like, yeah, like 40 people at the festival. And then COVID hit, we had two years off and we came back, went to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky in 2022. And we opened up registration and we sold out almost immediately.
200 plus people show up that year. This year we had to cap it. We had over 300 people this year. So we've seen so much growth, especially post COVID, because of how isolated the disability community, so many disability communities were during COVID. COVID, know, lockdowns ended and people were like, I need community. I need to give a sign. I want to dive into a new sport. I want to do whatever. And I want to be around community who gets it.
So we've grown a ton and now we don't move around anymore. We're like so big that we have to stay put. Which is great. It's a great problem to have.
Brendan Aylward (30:50.137)
It's a good problem, good problem. Yeah, definitely a good problem to have. That was like during COVID, there was so much talk about remote fitness, replacing brick and mortar facilities. And it just didn't come to fruition. Because like you said, people want to be around other people. And that can't really be replicated in a remote setting, even if you have a community feature.
Kristina Ericson (31:01.526)
Yeah. Uh-oh.
Kristina Ericson (31:07.118)
Totally. Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (31:13.4)
Yeah, absolutely.
Brendan Aylward (31:16.403)
What do you think the fitness industry as a whole could do to be more inclusive and accessible?
Kristina Ericson (31:22.646)
Hmm. That was a great one. so that my my like work in fitness is solely through climbing, which I think is like a slightly more offshoot of fitness than being like a mainstream gym. I think
Brendan Aylward (31:33.624)
Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (31:37.207)
Right, Yeah, more niche, yeah.
Kristina Ericson (31:43.794)
The biggest thing for me, and I said this earlier, but disability is almost always an afterthought. It's like this slapped on thing at the end of like, now we'll make it accessible. We built the gym, we built the programming, we built, you know, we built the staff, we did whatever. And like, now we're going to do accessibility. Where to like truly design an accessible space, it has to be baked in from the beginning. And I think that that's what a lot of gyms don't think about, whether that's like,
Yeah, like hiring instructors who are trained in adaptive fitness or working with folks with disabilities, like that is huge. Thinking about when you're planning clinics or classes or whatever else, like let's incorporate adaptive spaces into that. I think another thing too is a lot of, I think especially in the fitness world, when we think of disabled athletes, we solely think of people with physical disabilities. We're not factoring in, like there's a lot of...
autistic athletes out there or a lot of like athletes are down with the drum or you know all these other iterations of disability like physical disabilities take up a really really really small part of the disability world and I think that that that is always something that is it is frustrating to me it's like I used to be a caseworker when I was still in social work land and
one of my, yeah, like I would have clients that were like, yeah, I can't go to the gym because it's like too bright. It's too loud. It's too, there's too much. There's too many people. There's, know, and it's like, like those are things that gyms can mitigate and gyms can offer a quiet hour or a lights dim down hour. You know, we'll turn the music off from 12 to noon or what, you know, or 12 to two. Like there's things that can happen there that can also really open doors for people. Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (33:12.749)
Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (33:28.921)
Yeah, absolutely. I I love how you've kind of married your interests between climbing and your professional career and accessibility in the same way that I loved fitness and I wanted to be a special education teacher and I found a way to blend the two into opening a gym that was inclusive. So I always love hearing how people get from either a personal experience or something that impacted them into a...
Kristina Ericson (33:43.32)
public.
probably.
Kristina Ericson (33:53.038)
Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (33:54.421)
into their career. What are you most excited about that you're currently working on, whether it's ACF or something within your legislation?
Kristina Ericson (33:56.344)
follow.
Kristina Ericson (34:05.262)
That's a great question. I'm always excited about ECF. kind of in like the ECF happens in October every year and it's like an insane like we don't sleep for four days like go, go, go. The month of October is just like insanity. So I'm still a little bit in like the ECF hangover right now. But like starting in January, we really kick off into the like fundraising and like really diving into like how are we going to make ECF better this year and
Brendan Aylward (34:07.109)
Eh.
Kristina Ericson (34:33.056)
inclusive. So I'm excited. I'm always excited about that. At like my day job work, our legislative sessions like when laws are made in the state of Colorado starts January 8. And I'm very excited about that. We have some really cool disability rights laws on the docket this year, which I'm very excited to work on and to advocate for. And I think now more than ever not to bring
politics into this podcast, but we do have a new president coming in next month, which will impact a lot of disability systems and disability care and independent living services in this country, whether or not we know no matter what. And so that's very scary as somebody who works in government on the Q &A side, but it's, yeah, I'm excited to like work on new laws that are still.
Brendan Aylward (35:01.741)
Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (35:28.93)
protecting the rights of people in this country that really need it right now. So, yeah.
Brendan Aylward (35:33.601)
What spearheads most of the ACF fundraising? Do you solicit sponsorships from traditional climbing companies? Are you trying to get just corporate sponsors?
Kristina Ericson (35:42.434)
Yeah. All the above. We have, I brought in a director of development last year and it has changed everything. We've grown a lot that I was like, yes, we need you. Yeah, we have some amazing, amazing sponsors. We're sponsored by REI, the North base. Like we have some like big names attached to us that are pretty cool. Like Black Diamond, Petzl, like a lot of the kind of the bigger climbing brands come on.
come online and come hang out with us. And even to the degree, like we always say, ACF is a partnership. We don't just want to be this like inspirational charity thing that you're a part of. We're not there to make you look good. We're there to create an accessible climbing experience. And that's it. Please like, don't use us as your inspirational Christmas card at the end of the year. That's like, absolutely. We're going to draw the line.
But we do invite like the staff and especially like gear designers, we invite them to ACF to be like, hey, you designed this tent, but here are 10 people in wheelchairs and 10 people who are blind and 10 people who are missing their hands who can't get into the tent. So like, let's work with you to make the tent better. And because of that, the North Face is actually about to launch a new universal design camping line where they have it's like they have a hat, a pair of shoes.
a tent, a sleeping bag. They've designed all these things that are universally designed for the disability community and they got all of their participant feedback. They came to ACF and they set up for two years in a row and they were like, write us your notes. We have our sponsors, but we really incorporate it as you're a partner in this. We want to make the outdoor industry more accessible. You should too. Let's work together on that.
Brendan Aylward (37:31.373)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that. Yeah, yeah, that's an awesome, not unintended consequence, but that's an awesome way to impact beyond those 300 people that go to your event. Would there be a need to find a new location so you can accommodate more people or?
Kristina Ericson (37:41.294)
Yeah, absolutely.
Kristina Ericson (37:48.814)
That's a good question. we are pretty, if we, I think like the location is fine. We would need like so much more staff and like we, like I said earlier, we home cook all our meals. There's a lot of power that comes from sharing a meal with someone who you don't know, who maybe you don't always agree with, you know, ideologically or whatever it is, like.
from have a beer on the fire and share a warm meal together. Like that's a blast. Can you really stand behind? But our poor kitchen crew cannot do more than 350 people. They're like tapped. yeah. But, yeah.
Brendan Aylward (38:23.307)
Yeah, I was gonna say that's a lot of meals. That is a lot of meals. Yeah, the logistics of an event that big is pretty significant. That's awesome. So if people want to learn about ACF, we'll definitely include a link in the show notes. Best way to connect with you, LinkedIn.
Kristina Ericson (38:32.33)
Thank you.
Kristina Ericson (38:40.205)
Yes.
Yeah, or the email that you have emails great. I'm always around
Brendan Aylward (38:44.505)
Yeah. Wonderful. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Christina, thank you for sharing your expertise and your experience organizing that incredible event. gives me some good motivation to keep working on our 5K series and find out how we can make it better. I will share. Yeah.
Kristina Ericson (38:54.51)
Yeah, that's right.
Kristina Ericson (39:02.318)
Yeah, if you ever need help, let us know. like, we've got event organizing pretty down pat. Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (39:08.185)
I will probably take you up on that then. So I appreciate that. But I look forward to sharing this. Thanks for your time this morning.
Kristina Ericson (39:16.546)
Yeah, thanks. Have a good one. Bye.
Brendan Aylward (39:19.321)
Cool.