Activist Amputee Gives Disabled Seniors a Lift : Leisure World: As a result of her efforts, governing board relents on its refusal to provide buses with wheelchair access.

For years, Mary Pischke saw dozens of her Leisure World neighbors sell their condominiums and move to board-and-care homes, which mushroomed around the retirement community to accommodate the disabled.

When her husband died five years ago, the 71-year-old amputee faced the same fate: without transportation, she was virtually imprisoned in her home.

Two weeks ago, Pischke asked a committee of the Golden Rain Foundation, the community’s governing body, to provide wheelchair lifts on the buses that operate inside Leisure World. But the committee unanimously refused, saying that it did not want to change Leisure World’s image as an active community of 21,000 senior citizens.

With that, Pischke embarked on a one-woman crusade for the disabled. On Tuesday, the foundation announced that it would heed Pischke’s wishes and provide bus service.

Community activists hailed the decision as a victory for about 3,000 Leisure World residents who use wheelchairs, walkers and canes.

“We are absolutely delighted that they’ve changed their minds,” Pischke said. “Now, we don’t have to be confined to our houses. It’s like being let out of jail.”

Pischke said she did not mean to take on the governing body, but believed that she was forced to. Born with spina bifida, Pischke found her freedom was limited after her left foot was amputated about 10 years ago.

But her husband, who also had birth defects, used his skills as an engineer to modify a car, which he used to drive her around the community.

After his death, she found that the Dial-a-Ride service provided by the Orange County Transit District was not always reliable, she said.

She said she felt that Leisure World should provide wheelchair lifts for its disabled residents because they paid their $250 monthly activity fees but did not use the community facilities as much as other residents.

“I didn’t want to sell my place and leave like the others,” Pischke said. “This is the best place in the world for seniors. This is paradise. I just thought they could help us get around by equipping the buses with lifts.”

Murray Roth, chairman of the transportation committee, said he and other members had decided it would be too expensive and difficult to honor Pischke’s request. Such a service would cost the community about $71,000 a year, he said.

The bus drivers, who are also residents of Leisure World, would not be able to physically help wheelchair passengers with the lifts, he said.

But Johnn L. Hummer, a 71-year-old Laguna Niguel attorney, heard about Pischke’s plight and volunteered his services. Hummer met with Golden Rain board members and their attorneys last week and reminded them that they were obligated to provide lifts under the American Disabilities Act of 1990.

That law, which takes effect Jan. 26, requires most public and private transportation systems to accommodate disabled people, regardless of whether they receive federal money.

Sherwood Heiser, president of the Golden Rain Foundation, said it soon would provide a small bus with wheelchair lifts on an on-call basis. All new buses will be equipped with wheelchair lifts, he said.

“We had no other option,” Heiser said. “The writing is on the wall, we cannot fight the law. We’re glad that Pischke brought it to our attention because we want to obey the law.”

Pischke couldn’t go to the meeting Tuesday because she had no transportation. She watched it on the community’s closed-circuit television.

But 63-year-old Phyllis Stephens, a retired Hollywood real estate agent, attended the meeting with the help of a friend. Stephens, who suffered a stroke in 1978 that paralyzed her right side, pumped her left fist in the air when Heiser announced that wheelchair lifts would be provided soon.

“This is the best news,” Stephens said. “Now we can be ourselves. We can be free. . . . “