Date: November 5, 2010
Yosemite National Park has been selected as the recipient of the Fiscal Year 2010 National Park Service (NPS) National Sustained Park Accessibility Achievement Award. The award, which was presented to the Yosemite National Park Accessibility Program, recognizes an individual park that has made “sustained” efforts to comprehensively identify barriers to equal accessibility for persons with disabilities and to implement consistent, on-going action to resolve those barriers.
During the last five years, Yosemite has made steady accessibility improvements to a range of visitor facilities, including parking lots, hiking trails, educational exhibits, and tactile displays. The park created a Yosemite Accessibility Guide that is available in large print and Braille at visitor centers. The guide is also available at park entrance stations and on the web.
“Making Yosemite’s facilities accessible to all visitors, regardless of physical challenges, is incredibly important to the park. I’m honored that our staff has been recognized for their sustained efforts in making the park accessible to everybody,” said Yosemite National Park Superintendent Don Neubacher.
The award was presented by NPS Deputy Director, Mickey Fearn, to the members of the Accessibility Committee at an awards ceremony on October 14, 2010, in Washington, D.C. Special recognition at the awards event was given to Mark Butler, Accessibility Coordinator; Cheri Murdock, Accessibility Program Lead Analyst; Mary Kline, Branch Chief, Interpretive Services; Randy Fong, Project Management; Colter Chisum, Engineering Branch in the Division of Facilities Management; and Steve Ullmann, DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, Inc.
