Last updated: July 9, 2024
Article
Founding Yosemite's Deaf Services Program
Harpers Ferry Center/National Park Service
By Ellie Kaplan/NPS Park History Program
In 1979, Yosemite National Park vowed to make the park more accessible for visitors with disabilities. The commitment was part of the NPS-wide “Year of the Visitor.” Since then, a full-time sign language interpreter has worked every summer at Yosemite. This is the longest-running program of its kind throughout the National Park Service (NPS). It resulted from dedicated citizens who shared their expertise and time with the park. Dale Dahl, a Deaf [1] man and wheelchair user, and Maureen Fitzgerald, a hearing person who worked as a sign language interpreter, were foundational to the origins of Deaf Services at Yosemite. Their experiences show the power of citizens and employees working together to make the NPS more accessible for everyone.
Disability Activism in the Bay Area, California
By the time Dahl and Fitzgerald built the Deaf Services Program at Yosemite, they were already veterans of accessibility work. For years, both had contributed to disability programs and protests 150 miles west of Yosemite in the Bay Area of California. The two met each other in 1975 at the Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley. Founded in 1972, CIL was a new type of community center run by and for people with disabilities. CIL promoted independence by providing services, information, and a gathering place.[2] According to one observer, Dahl was “the only reason that there was deaf services at CIL. This…spinal cord-injured deaf guy showed up and wouldn’t go away.”[3] Dahl taught sign language to community members and CIL staff, including Fitzgerald. He also helped forge bonds between the D/deaf and physically disabled communities of Berkeley.[4]
These bonds were important during the disability rights protests of the late 1970s. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protected disabled Americans from discrimination. It required that activities receiving federal funding be available to people with disabilities, including D/deaf individuals. But these protections could not exist in practice until the Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) Secretary signed the regulations. In April 1977, disability activists held sit-ins across the country. They sought to pressure the administration of President Jimmy Carter to sign the regulations. The longest sit-in lasted almost a month at the HEW building in San Francisco. Dahl was an active member of the San Francisco sit-in. Fitzgerald also contributed with frequent visits and overnight stays. Their protest was successful: the regulations were finally signed on April 28, 1977.
A Fortuitous Trip to Yosemite
Dahl and Fitzgerald, by now romantically involved, took a camping vacation to Yosemite in 1979. On this trip, they met Donna Pritchett. Pritchett, a wheelchair user, served as the Disabled Access Coordinator at Yosemite. She encouraged Dahl and Fitzgerald to work with Yosemite staff to develop services aimed at D/deaf visitors. They also caught the attention of Chief Naturalist Len McKenzie on one of his bird walks. McKenzie noticed that Fitzgerald had started interpreting the naturalist’s words for Dahl. McKenzie was already interested in accessibility. He had previously expanded access for people with physical disabilities at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Due to increased national attention on disability rights by the late 1970s, Yosemite began investing in their own accessibility efforts. These included staff workshops, which Dahl was invited to contribute to in the spring of 1979.
Yosemite National Park
The Birth of Yosemite’s Deaf Services Program
After the workshop, Fitzgerald suggested that she and Dahl work on D/deaf accessibility at Yosemite. The park hired Fitzgerald for the summer of 1979 to provide sign language interpretation and create a Deaf Services Program. While not hired himself, Dahl volunteered to share his expertise and connections to the D/deaf community. Fitzgerald reflected on that decision in a 1999 oral history interview. She lamented that, despite her best efforts to convince the park to hire them both, Yosemite brought only her onto the payroll. “I think that’s unfortunate,” she explained, “that sometimes happens that a hearing person who knows sign language is less threatening than a deaf person, so I got hired. Dale spent quite a bit of time coming to Yosemite during the summers I was there.”[5]
Throughout the summer of 1979, Fitzgerald provided sign language interpretation to D/deaf visitors at visitor centers and select programs. She also raised awareness about the culture and rights of D/deaf and disabled visitors for park employees. Among these activities, she held sign language classes several times a week. She invited hearing people to practice signing with D/deaf visitors in an informal lunchtime setting. In addition, Fitzgerald implemented structural changes. These were impactful even during the off-season when a sign language interpreter was not on site. Such changes included the addition of video captions, printed scripts, and a teletypewriter (TTY). This machine allowed people to communicate with typed messages in real time rather than orally over the phone.
While Yosemite hired only Fitzgerald for that first summer, she did not act alone in the creation of the Deaf Services Program. She and Dahl understood: if people don’t know about the available access tools, disabled people won’t use park facilities and programs. So, they reached out to members of the Deaf community to share their insights and spread the word about accessibility changes. One suggestion was to provide printed information and clear signage at every entrance station. Dahl and a Deaf camper-hiker - named Mary Ellen Lentz - helped by reviewing materials and aiding with classes. Lentz also created some of the sign names for locations and rock formations around Yosemite. The park still uses these signs today.
Fitzgerald and Dahl showed that D/deaf visitors would use and appreciate Deaf Services at Yosemite. The success of that first summer led the park to create a permanent seasonal job. Now called Deaf Services Coordinator, the position is housed within the Visitor Information Services division. The Coordinator continues to serve D/deaf visitors and oversee employed and volunteer sign language interpreters to the present.
Disability Rights and the Park Service
Fitzgerald and Dahl’s contributions to Yosemite highlight the ripple effects of the nation-wide disability rights activism of the 1970s. The 504 regulations were necessary for the NPS to increase access across their park units. The 1977 sit-in also spotlighted the topic of civil rights for Americans with disabilities. These actions helped build disability pride and raise awareness about one’s rights. When discussing access at Yosemite, citizen activists like Dahl and Fitzgerald used the language of rights rather than the language of charity.[6]
Fitzgerald credits Section 504 with facilitating her career. More job opportunities became available once the law required sign language interpretation at federally funded activities. “It did open a lot of things that made it possible for me to work in that [disability] community,” she explained in a 2014 interview.[7] Fitzgerald and Dahl’s activist work and lived experiences had primed them to always be thinking about access. When staff members at Yosemite expressed interest, they were ready to take advantage of the moment. It resulted in permanent changes at the park.
By the 1970s, D/deaf visitors to Yosemite were more ready to demand their rights than in the past. It was important to have an advocate within the park in the form of the Deaf Services Coordinator. The Deaf Services Program at Yosemite shows the explicit and implicit connections between accessibility efforts in the NPS and the broader disability rights movement.
This article was written by Ellie Kaplan, MA, National Council for Preservation Education Intern, with the National Park Service Park History Program. 2023.
End Notes
1 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.
2 Services offered at CIL included skills training, peer counseling, and wheelchair repair, among others.
3 Corbett O’Toole, “Advocate for Disabled Women’s Rights and Health Issues,” by Denise Sherer Jacobson, 1998: 90, Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Oral History Series, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (2000).
4 For more on the collaboration between Deaf and physically disabled people in the Bay Area, see Corbett Joan O’Toole, “Dale Dahl and Judy Heumann: Deaf Man, Disabled Woman – Allies in 1970s Berkely,” in Deaf and Disability Studies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, eds. Susan Burch and Alison Kafer, Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2010.
5 Maureen Fitzgerald, “Staff Member at the Center for Independent Living, 1975-1976: The Development of Deaf Services at CIL and the Computer Training Program,” by David Landes, 1999: 40, Center for Independent Living, Berkeley: Deaf Services and Services for Families with Disabilities, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, (2007).
6 For more on the different models of disability see: https://www.miusa.org/resource/tipsheet/disabilitymodels/
7 “Maureen Fitzgerald on the experience of being a 504 protester and non-disabled ally,” Spring 2014, video, 44:32, Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability Collection, San Francisco State University.
Sources
Cayton, Nancy. “Summer at Yosemite in Sign.” ASL News 11, no. 4 (Summer 2010). https://www.berkeleycitycollege.edu/asl/files/2010/09/summer10c.pdf.
Cole, Jessica. “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.
Deaf Services Annual Reports. Interpretation and Education Division Records. YCN 1025, 002.01. Field Operations and Services: Deaf Services, 208-2. Box 123. Yosemite National Park Archives. El Portal, CA
Fitzgerald, Maureen. “Staff Member at the Center for Independent Living, 1975-1976: The Development of Deaf Services at CIL and the Computer Training Program,” interview by David Landes. 1999:1-50. Center for Independent Living, Berkeley: Deaf Services and Services for Families with Disabilities. Regional Oral History Office. The Bancroft Library. University of California. Berkeley. (2007) https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/fitzgerald_jauregui_kirshbaum.pdf.
———. “Maureen Fitzgerald on the experience of being a 504 protester and non-disabled ally.” video. 44:32. Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability Collection. San Francisco State University. Spring 2014. https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/longmoreinstitute/bundles/231039.
O’Toole, Corbett “Advocate for Disabled Women’s Rights and Health Issues”. Interview by Denise Sherer Jacobson. 1998. Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Oral History Series. Regional Oral History Office. The Bancroft Library. University of California. Berkeley. (2000) http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt4779n6sq&brand=oac4&doc.view=entire_text.
“Valerie Vivona and Maureen Fitzgerald.” StoryCorps Archive. Recorded November 25, 2014 at the San Francisco StoryBooth. streaming audio. https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/sfb003017/?tm=1800.