Fabio’s Journey Towards Independent Living: One Step at a Time
Accessibility is the foundation of independent living
For people with disabilities, independent living is far more than a housing arrangement: it is the right to choose where, how, and with whom to live, as recognised by Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Yet for many, this right remains out of reach as accessible, affordable homes remain in short supply.
Accessibility is what transforms a house into a home one can actually inhabit, enjoy, and call one’s own. But accessibility extends well beyond ramps and adapted bathrooms: it also means accessible neighbourhoods, public transport, workplaces — and, just as importantly, accessible support, where each person can build the skills, the confidence, and the relationships needed to live an autonomous life. This is precisely the vision at the heart of HS4IL – Housing Solutions for Independent Living, a three-year Erasmus+ KA2 project coordinated by APEMH Foundation (LU), with partners ARFIE, Housing Europe, OpenGroup, AMPANS, Live Foundation, and CERCINA. HS4IL is mapping innovative housing experiences across Europe and exploring how housing, technology, and human support can finally align to deliver on Article 19.
The story below — Fabio’s account of his own journey towards independent living — illustrates, perhaps better than any policy paper, what this means in practice.
A journey woven by shared threads
“Porta itineris longissima esse” — the door is the longest part of a journey.
Fabio opens his story with this Latin proverb, capturing what for him was the hardest step of all: leaving the family home. Before this journey began, “independence” meant little more than a few days away, and living with his family of origin felt like a permanent given.
His first stage of independent living was, quite literally, a sofa bed in someone else’s apartment, another young man using a wheelchair, who agreed to host him on the recommendation of social services. Cohabitation in a confined space was demanding, sometimes conflictual. Yet it was also where Fabio began his educational journey with Gloria, learning the basics of self-management: cooking, laundry, mediating shared spaces. In June 2018, a training internship turned into his first permanent job — the same one he still holds today. Before moving into his current home in 2023, an apartment rented from the local public housing company where he lives on his own, he had to go through three more moves and multiple challenges and learnings– both about himself and the experience of living independently.
Fabio’s reflection at the end of his account is simple and clear: his journey so far was never linear, and it was never solo. What made it possible was the thin thread connecting him to all the people he walked alongside — for a month, a day, a year. Through that thread, a new image of his future became possible — one that was unthinkable at the start.