Founding Yosemite's Deaf Services Program

Maureen Fitzgerald (left) interpreting for Dale Dahl and Ranger Naturalist Eileen Berrey. Yosemite National Park. July 1979. Harpers Ferry Center/National Park Service

By Ellie Kaplan/NPS Park History Program

In 1979,

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.

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

An article in The Yosemite Sentinel invites staff to learn American Sign Language. July 1980. 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

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:

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.

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.

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