diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1fc3a2995..ce3a84cee 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 
 ### Bug fixes
 - Fixed issue with custom class generation when a spec has a `name`. @rly [#1006](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1006)
+- Fixed issue with usage of deprecated `ruamel.yaml.safe_load` in `src/hdmf/testing/validate_spec.py`. @rly [#1008](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1008)
 
 - Fixed issue where `ElementIdentifiers` data could be set to non-integer values. @rly [#1009](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1009)
 
diff --git a/src/hdmf/testing/validate_spec.py b/src/hdmf/testing/validate_spec.py
index 89b8704bf..4d25ff084 100755
--- a/src/hdmf/testing/validate_spec.py
+++ b/src/hdmf/testing/validate_spec.py
@@ -32,7 +32,8 @@ def __init__(self):
     new_resolver = FixResolver()
 
     f_nwb = open(fpath_spec, 'r')
-    instance = yaml.safe_load(f_nwb)
+    yaml_obj = yaml.YAML(typ='safe', pure=True)
+    instance = yaml_obj.load(f_nwb)
 
     jsonschema.validate(instance, schema, resolver=new_resolver)