Giving Compassion a Lift

Leisure World in Orange County, which promotes an “active” lifestyle for senior citizens, had an image problem recently. The Laguna Hills retirement community was petitioned by a 71-year-old amputee who wanted wheelchair lifts installed on buses operating within the complex. The community’s governing board at first refused, saying among other things that it might affect adversely the notion that it runs a place for seniors on the go.

The idea that fitness should accompany us from cradle to grave is a very “California” concept. But if the state is capable of narcissism, it also has shown a commendable capacity for addressing the needs of all its citizens; it has been a leader in transportation that accommodates the handicapped. And the quest for fitness inevitably gives way to reality. Among the residents of the “active” community of Leisure World, about 3,000 of 21,000 use wheelchairs, walkers and canes.

Fortunately, the law and common sense in the end came down on the side of Mary Pischke, the protesting resident. The American Disabilities Act of 1990, which takes effect Jan. 26, requires most public and private transportation systems to accommodate disabled people, whether or not those systems receive federal money. Once that was brought to the attention of the governing body, it agreed quickly to run a small bus with wheelchair lifts to provide service on call.

That was welcome news indeed for Leisure World residents such as Phyllis Stephens, a retired Hollywood agent who is wheelchair-bound because of a stroke. Though restricted in movement, she felt liberated in spirit: “Now we can be ourselves. We can be free.”

Sooner or later, the reality of aging sets in on us all. Even in “youthful” California.