"Love can change a person's world!"

As the mom of a son with disabilities, Susan Tachau vowed he would live a good life. But getting him the things he needed to keep that promise proved to be expensive-and, she knew, out of reach for many families. So she offered them a helping hand

- Julie Halpert

Susan Tachau sat in the doctor's office cradling her 9-month-old son, Michael Anderson, who had been born 12 weeks premature, when the pediatrician offhandedly remarked, "By the way, your son has cerebral palsy." While in that moment, in 1982, Susan had no idea what that meant-she'd never known anyone with a disability-the Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, mom soon realized the challenge ahead.

Though she and her husband, Mark, vowed Michael would live a good, happy life, as he grew, getting him the things he needed for them to keep that promise became a nightmare. Health insurance only covered durable medical equipment, like wheelchairs, canes and walkers. Susan and Mark needed to shell out $30,000 for an adaptive vehicle to transport him. Unable to walk, Michael had to be carried upstairs to use the bathroom; they couldn't afford to make the downstairs bathroom accessible until, when Michael was 12, Mark got tenure as a law school professor. Even then, they had to take out a high-interest home equity loan.

What about families that don't qualify for a loan. What do they do? Susan wondered.

A take-charge type of person, Susan decided she would do something to help them as well.

Offering help and hope

 Having worked for 11 years as the policy director for the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, Susan combined her financial knowledge with her personal experience as a mom of a child with disabilities and, in 1998, she launched Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Foundation (PATF), which works to bring the technologies that are cost-prohibitive to people with disabilities.

"This isn't going to be a handout, but rather a helping hand," she told Mark.