Sunday, December 05, 1999
Home needs to be wheelchair equipped
BY MIKE PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Lee and Diana Wright
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For Lee and Diana Wright, living in their own home will be a dream come true.
“It's adorable,” Mrs. Wright smiles. “A little cottage.”
Now she just needs a better way in and out. Born with cerebral palsy 39 years ago, she has never walked. Built in 1924, the two-bedroom Oakley house the couple found and bought in October, has never been wheelchair equipped.
So she can get to her job at the FreeStore/FoodBank, Mrs. Wright needs wider doors, a porch floor level with the house floor and an electric lift that would take her safely from the porch to the ground.
A native of White Oak, she has lived in Find-a-Way Apartments, a facility for the disabled in Oakley, for 16 years, the last eight with her husband, a 39-year-old restaurant dish washer from Northern Kentucky.
“If you go out to eat (Cooker, Hyde Park Plaza) and your dishes are dirty, blame Lee,” Mrs. Wright quips.
Mr. Wright has speech and hearing impairments. The two met at the FreeStore, where both were volunteers.
Mr. and Mrs. Wright said they had looked at more than 100 houses over the past year.
They took a Better Housing League course in home ownership, and “We were very particular about what it (the house they would select) looked like,” Mrs. Wright said. “A woman at the Better Housing League said "You'll know right away when you find the right house,' and we did.”
Introduction to the Wish List
Use this coupon
How the Wish List works
Their wishes came true: 1998 recipients
Equipment could ease communication for palsy patients
Single father of two ill children needs appliances, furniture
Computer would offer gift of voice
Mom needs a safe place to sleep for her daughter
Blind college student needs devices, special software
Home needs to be wheelchair equipped
Hospital bed can add to independence
Lift chair can make standing easier
Ky. man's smile might shine more brightly
Scooter would give Avondale man new freedom
Computer could help mother helpo her children
Reading machine would open world
