Untold Stories | Sonya Wilson, Deaf climber & ASL Climbing Network founder

In honor of Women's History Month, we are highlighting the Untold Story of Sonya Wilson, a Deaf climber, advocate and the founder of the ASL Climbing Network.
Sonya Wilson was born deaf in 1972 in Los Angeles before she moved to Nevada, where she went to school at a Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing program.
In this program, she wasn’t allowed to use sign language and she had to learn to read lips and wear painful amplified hearing devices, so she escaped these challenges by going outside and climbing.
As Sonya got more into climbing, she found that climbing groups were not inclusive of Deaf climbers.
She and a Deaf friend tried to join a group to climb the world’s seven highest mountains, but she was told that they had to hire their own interpreters AND they would be charged much more for the trip.
The truth is that Deaf climbers have many skills that they contribute!
Sonya says, “We have strength in the eyes and understand body language and expressions very well. Our adaptability skills are often off the charts!”
Sonya knew something had to change, so in 2012, she created the ASL Climbing Network for Deaf climbers to connect, share experiences, and organize outdoor climbing events.
Of course, the outdoors industry still has work to do to be more inclusive. Sonya suggests:
Using captions in outdoor films,
Providing ASL interpreters,
Training adventure guides in visual expressions and hand signals,
And creating more outdoor adventure programs for Deaf kids.
To learn more about Sonya and the ASL Climbing Network, follow these accounts: @deafclimber @aslclimbnetworkca and @aslhikers
Thank you to Sonya Wilson and the50athletes.com (@the50athletes) for the use of their photos in this post.
Warner College's Untold Stories uncover the natural resources stories that you don’t always learn in class. You can learn more about our Untold Stories here.
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