Life has its challenges. But in the face of adversity, entrepreneur Alison Jacobson says it”™s all in what you make of it.
Two years ago Jacobson”™s husband, Greg, was diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis and while she started to see him lose hope and sink into depression, she told him they had two options: Either do nothing and wallow, or overcome it.
In a transitional moment, the couple decided to overcome it and launched a business to help people make their homes handicap accessible, something the Jacobsons were all too familiar with.
“I love my husband to death and when he got that diagnosis of MS it was really hard for him, like it is for a lot of people,” Jacobson said. “Part of them feels like their lives are over and it”™s never going to be the same again.”
“But we were able to take a major obstacle and turn it into something we love,” she said. “You can take something horrible and make it wonderful, and pay it forward.”
The newly launched, Wilton-based company, Accessible Home Living, will specialize in disability remodeling, whether that means installing wheelchair ramps and lifts or lowering light switches to make them more accessible. The company also plans to work with occupational therapists and social workers to help clients”™ family members cope with challenges they might face.
“We really try to help people plan ahead so they can stay in their homes for as long as possible,” Jacobson said. “There”™s a growing number of people with disabilities and a lot of homes in Connecticut are not handicap-accessible. If a 21-year-old gets into a car crash and is now a paraplegic, her parents are going to bring her home and think, ”˜Oh my gosh. How are we going to get her up the stairs?”™”
Jacobson said founding the company has greatly helped her husband keep a positive outlook and gives meaning to the couple”™s lives. For Jacobson, the company is also a reflection of her evolving interests as both a caretaker and entrepreneur.
Previously, Jacobson founded Safety Mom Solutions to help people baby- and child-proof their homes after her first son died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and her second son was born with intellectual disabilities.
Then, as Jacobson became a caretaker for her father who has Alzheimer”™s and macular degeneration, she shifted her focus to seniors, serving as the CEO of another home modification company in Meriden. The company, Practical Assisted Living Solutions, or PALS for short, installs small handicap-accessible apartments onto caregivers”™ homes.
Now with Accessible Home Living, Jacobson says the focus is broadly on retrofitting homes for any disability, with the goal of helping families throughout the region and perhaps the nation someday.
“I don”™t want to see anyone in assisted-living or a nursing home,” she said. “My goal is to make sure that anyone who wants to live in their home can do that.”
