Disability Support Service Portability Framework
Americans with disabilities lose essential supports simply for crossing a geographic line. When services are tied to place instead of the person, freedom becomes conditional.
The Disability Support Service Portability Framework exists to correct this by shifting disability support from location-based eligibility to person-based continuity. Independence should not require staying in place. Care should travel with the individual in the same way that other federal protections do.
This framework is intended as a foundation for research, policy development, and pilot programs. It is the foundation of a new system.
Overview
The Disability Support Service Portability Framework is Beyond The Box Advocacy’s first systems-change model under the Enforced Barriers Project. It creates a federal pathway for people to keep their services when they move, instead of restarting eligibility or losing care entirely. By making support portable, the initiative establishes mobility as the baseline condition for real independence and makes larger reform across the remaining barriers possible.
What Comes Next
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Americans with disabilities can lose care simply by crossing a geographic line because services are tied to location instead of the person. Mobility becomes a risk, which keeps people trapped in place and unable to move for family, safety, work, or opportunity.
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The Disability Support Service Portability Framework creates a federal pathway so support follows the person wherever they live. It treats access to care as continuous, not location-based, making independence stable.
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Portability restores both personal freedom and political power. People can live where their lives actually work and the disability community becomes a unified national constituency.