While the National Park Service may not be 100% accessible, they have certainly been making progress.
By Rob Ingraham
“We have an accessible toilet at 10,500 feet on the side of Mt. Rainier, in Washington,” Accessibility Program Manager David Park of the National Park Service (NPS) recently noted. By anyone’s standard, that is evidence of commitment.
Park explained that the NPS helicoptered a portable toilet to the site not long ago, but got complaints from two climbers with disabilities that the facility wasn’t accessible. One of the climbers had developed a mechanized wheelchair device that enabled him to negotiate the snow fields at that elevation and his companion was using a mono-ski with a pulley device—his nondisabled fellow mountaineers would climb ahead of him and hold a rope; the climber would then pull himself up the side of the mountain. Park said that the Rainier superintendent agreed with the climbers and had an accessible portable toilet carried up with one of their subsequent helicopter missions.
“The Right Thing to Do”
The NPS’s general policy on accessibility is outlined in “Director’s Order #42: Accessibility for Visitors with Disabilities in National Park Service Programs and Services” (www.nps.gov/policy/DOrders/DOrder42.html). The order was issued in 2000, and Park said he expects an updated version will be read for public comment sometime this year.
Director’s Order #42 says, “The primary reason for making the NPS accessible is because it is the right thing to do. It simply makes good sense to employ the principles of ‘universal design’ in providing facilities and programs that are accessible to, and usable by, everyone. Failure to do so denies the opportunity for over 54 million citizens with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to enjoy their national parks.”
Order #42 also notes, “In the final analysis, the ultimate measure of accountability will be the degree to which persons with disabilities can visit national parks, receive the same services, and access the same opportunities as other visitors.”
Park urges individuals with disabilities to visit the NPS Web site—www.nps.gov—where they can access the Web site of every park in the system. Each park has a site with a wide variety of useful information, including accessibility. If visitors still have questions, each park’s Web site also has telephone contact information.
If a visitor with disabilities finds a park with accessibility problems or barriers that could be eliminated they should inform the park’s management. “Most of these issues are best handled at the local level with each individual park superintendent,” he said. Park added, however, that if visitors still have unresolved problems, they are welcome to contact him directly in Washington, D.C. at 202-513-7027 and he will look into the issue personally.
Rob Ingraham is senior editor.
