Donna Pritchett: An Advocate for Accessibility at Yosemite National Park

By Ellie Kaplan/NPS Park History Program

Donna Pritchett was an outdoor enthusiast who experienced spinal injuries after a 1976 car accident. Permanently disabled, Pritchett devoted the rest of her life to making Yosemite National Park more accessible for people with disabilities. Her commitment reflects the importance of breaking barriers across public lands.

Left: Announcement for Christmas benefit dance for Donna Pritchett. Right: Article sharing Donna Pritchett's gratitude and ongoing needs during her recovery.  Click For Larger Images with Complete Alt Text.

Yosemite Sentinel, December and January 1977. Yosemite National Park.

At Home at Yosemite

Like many before her, Donna Pritchett found contentment and community amid the immense granite and giant sequoias at Yosemite National Park. In the 1960s and 1970s, she lived and worked at the park, including in the Yosemite Lodge cafeteria.¹ Pritchett enjoyed the camaraderie of the cross-country skiing and rock climbing circles there.² These deep bonds grew even more important after September 1976, when a car accident left Pritchett paralyzed with a C-6 spinal cord injury. The staff paper, Yosemite Sentinel, announced her hospitalization and recovery journey.³ The December 1977 issue advertised a “Spirit of Christmas” benefit dance to raise funds to support Pritchett.⁴

By the time of the fundraiser, Pritchett was already back at Yosemite in a new role. Since the spring of 1977, Pritchett had begun serving as a VIP, also known as a Volunteer-in-Park. In exchange for this voluntary work, Pritchett received permanent housing from the park. They also coordinated with a California rehabilitation counselor to supply Pritchett with an electric wheelchair.⁵ This accessibility tool facilitated greater mobility around Yosemite Valley. Pritchett used her daily experiences as a wheelchair user to improve the park’s facilities for people with disabilities. Her work contributed to broader efforts to expand park access.

Blueprint for an accessible interim comfort station at Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park. August 1977.  Click for Larger Version of Image.

Yosemite National Park Archives.

“Handicapped Action Plan”

Since at least the late 1960s, Yosemite employees had committed to improving accessibility for people with disabilities. This work accelerated in the late 1970s with the formation of a new task force, of which Pritchett was a key member. The task force produced the “Yosemite National Park Handicapped Action Plan" – possibly the first of its kind across the National Park System. The Action Plan created short- and long-term plans to increase physical and programmatic access. Physical access includes changes like making parking spaces and sidewalks level, widening doors, and adding wheelchair lifts to buses. Captions on movies and Braille-language versions of brochures are examples of programmatic access. While these plans focused primarily on serving visitors with physical disabilities, Yosemite staff also reflected on the needs of blind and D/deaf visitors.⁶ The goal was to “mainstream the disabled visitor” by removing barriers.⁷

To write the Action Plan, the committee first gathered information. They held meetings with disabled visitors. They researched accessibility guidelines, including the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) A117.1, which are voluntary standards that guide national practices in industry and public sectors. Pritchett enlisted Robert Elting, a fellow wheelchair user and student intern from the University of California Berkeley, to assist with surveying the park. The pair evaluated all public spaces in the park’s developed areas in the winter and summer seasons. The two produced an impressive 27-page appendix to the Action Plan, analyzing the accessibility of each facility. Locations included visitor centers, eateries, hotels, and employee buildings, among others.⁸

Importance of Lived Experiences

As wheelchair users, Pritchett and Elting brought important perspectives to navigating park facilities. Pritchett explained in a memo from March 1978: “I, as a wheelchair user, am able to see that small but significant oversites, which will make facilities unusable by the wheelchair user, have been made.”⁹ For example, they knew that adding a ramp to a building does not automatically make it accessible. In April 1978, Pritchett educated Concessions Management about the ramp into the Ansel Adams Gallery. She said it was too steep and had a small ditch at the bottom that could catch the front tires of a wheelchair. While these attributes may appear minor, she pointed out that they can be dangerous for a person in a wheelchair. Therefore, the park needed to remodel the ramp to provide true access.¹⁰

Pritchett also reminded Yosemite leadership of the value of disabled visitors interacting with disabled employees: “I need input into the work that I am doing from other disabled individuals who tend to feel free to talk when they see me about things they would not discuss with anyone else.”¹¹ Pritchett advocated to keep herself in a public-facing role. She understood that she was a crucial point of contact for the growing number of visitors with disabilities.

Page 9 of the Yosemite Handicap Action Plan.  Click on Image for Larger Version with Complete Alt Text.

1978. Yosemite National Park Archives.

Implementing the Action Plan

The task force disbanded after publishing the Action Plan in March 1978. Pritchett and a landscape architect named Don Fox then set to work implementing the Action Plan.¹² They used their limited budget to make small improvements in highly trafficked areas. This work included adding more curb cuts, increasing bathroom access, and lowering the height of telephones. By holding staff trainings, they sought to “foster an increased level of sensitivity and empathy for the needs of the handicapped among employees.”¹³ They also improved communications with disabled visitors by providing access-specific information at entrance stations.¹⁴

As she brainstormed ways to increase access across park programs, Pritchett helped spark the creation of a Deaf Services Program. In the spring of 1979, Dale Dahl, a Deaf man, visited Yosemite with his partner Maureen Fitzgerald, a sign language interpreter. On vacation, they met Pritchett. She encouraged the pair to contribute their expertise on D/deaf access to the park. As a result, Fitzgerald was hired for the summers of 1979 and 1980 to establish Yosemite Deaf Services. This program still exists today.¹⁵

Pritchett’s accessibility work at Yosemite contributed to broader efforts across the National Park Service to be more inclusive. For example, the NPS designated 1979 the "Year of the Visitor” to increase park access for under-represented communities. This work operated at the national, regional, and park levels. Pritchett brought her expertise to a western regional committee for so-called “special populations.” This committee helped parks prepare short- and long-term access plans.¹⁶ By advocating for disabled visitors’ rights at the regional level, Pritchett extended her impact beyond Yosemite.

Legacy

Donna Pritchett passed away before the end of 1981, but her impacts on Yosemite National Park live on today.¹⁷ The 1978 “Handicapped Action Plan” declared:

“This is not an action plan to accommodate a special interest group. It is a plan which is responding to a human need for access, both physical and psychological, in this national park, for all visitors.” ¹⁸

Pritchett was a key figure in cultivating a sense of belonging for people with disabilities in national parks. Despite many budgetary and personnel limitations, Pritchett persisted in bringing accessibility issues to Yosemite leadership. Her efforts helped keep the needs of disabled visitors in mind throughout the park planning process. As Yosemite continues to improve accessibility into the present, we owe thanks to one of the fiercest early advocates for access. Donna Pritchett helped make her beloved Yosemite a more welcoming place for everyone.

Donna Pritchett's Legacy.  Park Ranger Jennifer Jacobs, Yosemite National Park Deaf Services sign language interpreter. 1986. Pritchett was instrumental in founding Yosemite's Deaf Services Program, the first of its kind in a national park.  Click for a Larger Version of the Photo.

NPGallery, Yosemite Historic Photo Collection.

This article was written by Ellie Kaplan, MA, National Council for Preservation Education Intern, with the National Park Service Park History Program. 2024.

---

End Notes

¹ “From the Lodge,” Yosemite Sentinel, September 17, 1965, https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_sentinel/1965.pdf.

² Gabriela Zim, The View from the Edge: Life and Landscapes of Beverly Johnson (Mountain N Air Books, 1996); Galen Rowell, “South Face of Half Dome,” American Alpine Club, 1971, http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12197126600/South-Face-of-Half-Dome.

³ “Donna Pritchett Injured,” Yosemite Sentinel, October 1976, https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_sentinel/1976.pdf; “Message from Donna Pritchett,” Yosemite Sentinel, January 1977, https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_sentinel/1977.pdf.

⁴ “‘The Spirit of Christmas’ Benefit Dance,” Yosemite Sentinel, December 1977, https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_sentinel/1977.pdf.

⁵ Charles W. Wendt to Robert Crawford, July 7, 1977, Resource Management Records (RMR), series 1, subseries A76, box 134, folder 1891, Yosemite National Park Archives, El Portal, CA. (Unless otherwise noted, all sources can be found in RMR at Yosemite National Park Archives.)

⁶ “Yosemite National Park Handicapped Action Plan,” March 1978, RMR, series 1, subseries A76, box 135, folder 1898; The capitalization of the term “deaf” matters when writing Deaf history. Deaf, with a capital D, refers to people with a shared Deaf culture, based on a common language (American Sign Language), history, and set of values. In contrast, deaf, with a lowercase d, refers to the medical condition of not hearing. Different individuals may identify as Deaf or deaf. Scholars have taken to using the nomenclature “D/deaf” to be inclusive of both identities.

⁷ Donald M. Fox to Trujillo Industries, April 19, 1978, RMR, series 1, subseries A76, box 135, folder 1899.

⁸ “Yosemite National Park Handicapped Action Plan.”

⁹ Donna Pritchett to Superintendent, March 10, 1978, “Task Force Report – ‘Facilities for the Handicapped,’” RMR, series 1, subseries A76, box 135, folder 1899.

¹⁰ Donna Pritchett to Concessions Management, April 24, 1978, “Wheelchair Ramp at Ansel Adams Gallery,” RMR, series 2, subseries C58, box 47, folder 511.

¹¹ Donna Pritchett to Mr. Mackie and Mr. Wendt, May 8, 1978, “Backcountry Information and Visitor Comment on the Backcountry Use Policy,” RMR, series 1, subseries A76, box 135, folder 1899.

¹² Leslie P. Arnberger to Donna Pritchett, March 16, 1978, “Facilities for the Handicapped,” RMR, series 1, subseries A76, box 135, folder 1899.

¹³ “Yosemite National Park Handicapped Action Plan,” p.12.

¹⁴ Donna Pritchett to Bill Wendt, May 8, 1978, “DI-134’s,” RMR, series 1, subseries A76, box 135, folder 1899.

¹⁵ Nancy Cayton, “Summer at Yosemite in Sign,” ASL News 11, no. 4, Summer 2010, https://www.berkeleycitycollege.edu/asl/files/2010/09/summer10c.pdf; Jessica Cole, “35 Years of Yosemite Deaf Services,” Yosemite Guide 39, no. 8, Oct 8-Dec 9, 2014, http://npshistory.com/publications/yose/newspaper/yg14-8.pdf. Additional sources can be found in the “Founding Yosemite’s Deaf Services Program” article.

¹⁶ Donna Pritchett to Hollynn Fuller, March 28, 1979, RMR, series 1, subseries A76, box 135, folder 1903.

¹⁷ Charles W. Wendt to Chief Ranger, “Building Surveys: Accessibility Specialist,” December 11, 1981, RMR, series 5, subseries H, box 13, folder 280.

¹⁸ “Yosemite National Park Handicapped Action Plan,” p.2.