Retirement Community First of Its Kind in Arkansas

Wandene Priest moved to the Good Shepherd Retirement Community three months ago and she's taken to the change quickly.

"I love it," Priest said. "I love it."

The 88-year-old is hardly ever indoors. Instead, she's often out socializing with her neighbors or delivering the Sunday newspaper to her neighbor across the street.

"I take it over to her every Sunday afternoon," she said.

The neighbor is just one in the community who is deaf.

"When there's an alarm or somebody ringing the door, there's a special light flash for people to see that," said Mark Davis the CEO of Good Shepherd.

He pointed out the ways the units for the deaf accommodate their needs and said before designing the new cottages, they learned from the Arkansas Association for the Deaf that people with hearing impairments have a difficult time entering retirement communities.

"They're kind of isolated and alone," he said.

So they designed these cottages with not only the special amenities, but also grouped the cottages together and have a full time staff member trained in sign language.

"This is the first effort in the state, and we are very proud of that," he said.

Even in her 80's, Priest is taking on new challenges, learning sign language from her hearing-impaired neighbors and says they definitely take advantage of having others like them close by.

"The two deaf people always sit together. Maybe I can sit with them when I learn more."