Hartshorne said she is determined that is no longer considered "unthinkable" for youngsters who are able to "participate, contribute and benefit".
"It's been a dream of mine for many years and it is born out of my own experience, but I've only been working on this for the last six months," she says.
In any case, she says, to deny those students that chance is a breach of New Zealand's Disability Strategy (2001) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Disabled Person, based on equal opportunity and equal participation.
"Host families will have to meet rigorous selection criteria. They'll receive a high standard of vigilance around safety, quality and suitability for a particular student or disability," Hartshorne said.
"We'll be looking at the individual student and saying what are the gaps, what do we need to put in place to make this the ideal experience? What disability-related support do they and the host family need and is that accessible in that community?
"These young people are already vulnerable and we need to make sure we get it right the first time."
Australia is likely to be the first country involved, and the pilot could be up and running in the first term next year.
The fledgling A2B trust, still in its registration stage, is packed with people power. Hartshorne, a trained social worker, said she approached Julie Bartlett (NZOM, founder of StarJam, Next Magazine Woman of the Year 2012) about "my crazy idea" and asked Bartlett to be her mentor.
"Under her guidance I've cobbled together a board."
She called on people whom she described as "two of the best disability advocates and thinkers in New Zealand", now board member Whangarei lawyer Vanassa McGoldrick and adviser Tiaho Trust chief executive Jonny Wilkinson.
Other members are Ezekial Robson, a disability sector leader from Auckland; chartered accountant Sean Ming; and business and governance specialist Darrin Brinsden.
Business and strategic plans, funding streams, partnerships, sponsorship, Government departments, community groups, public speaking ... "It's a busy time but it's very rewarding and challenging, and I'm up for challenge."
GROWING up in Auckland, Hartshorne went to Queen Victoria School for Maori girls, then spent her last two years at co-ed James Cook High School.
There were times she'd suffered schoolyard bullying but says that at high school, "I flourished, and developed good social skills."
When it came to her AFS application, though: "I was Maori, I had a disability. I was in the too-hard basket."
She'd learnt that "to survive, I had to fake it".
" I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, that I was worthy. I wanted to prove to myself I could be accepted, achieve, make new friends and navigate my way around a strange environment.
"This amazing experience of self-discovery, forming enduring relationships and awakening my senses to global difference and variation provided me with the blueprint of my life. This gave me the self-confidence and mastery to find a career, own a home and eventually get married to a terrific man. I got a life. I did it. I was no longer that low-confidence, faking-it girl."
Would Hartshorne have come up with the Achieve 2B initiative without her own first-hand experience? "Unlikely. My relationship with my host family has survived 25 years of snail mail. This March I returned to Ohio to share my host Mom's 75th birthday. She and my host sister came to New Zealand five years ago to celebrate our wedding.
"Twenty-five years later the impact of this transformational experience now sets the direction for my life ahead."
As she hopes it might for other young people.
"A2B [is] providing a platform for those kids to spring off in order to give them an experience in a totally different environment, equal to what is available to non-disabled students," Hartshorne said.
"We talk about this as the cutting edge of further defining inclusion. These children are also our future professionals, policy makers and leaders."
