Sitting at the dining room table, Alex Ware asks his father, Nick, to draw a new door into the floor plan. Alex’s family is building the 23-year-old a house so he can finally have the life he wants, one of independence, and that door is key.
Alex has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a disorder which restricts the movement in his arms and legs. He’s used a wheelchair for most of his life but became completely wheelchair-dependent at age 16. Finding a wheelchair-accessible home or apartment that was close to his family’s Tunnel Hill home and which fit into his fixed income presented a challenge.
“I was ready to get out and do my own thing when I was his age,” Nick Ware said. He wanted to pass that independence on to his oldest son, “but the world isn’t built for people with disabilities.”
Nick and Kristi Ware began helping Alex search for a house of his own about two years ago. They looked at foreclosures and apartments within a three-mile radius, but those kept falling through or weren’t fully accessible.
Staff photo by Sabrina Bodon / Nick Ware shows the property where he is planning to build his son a house. Community members and companies like Imperial Landscape and Pioneer Technology have donated time or helped with construction.“We stepped away for a few months and said, ‘Lord, if you want us to have a house, you’re going to have to drop it in our laps,'” Kristi said with a laugh.