The Enabling Inclusion (EI) App: A story from Rural South India about COVID-19 and digital techno

Objectives: During the COVID-19 pandemic, India saw multiple lockdowns over 2 years that impacted rehabilitation service provision nationally. Digital technologies helped provide and maintain service provision to children with disabilities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu through the Enabling Inclusion (EI) App developed by Amar Seva Sangam Ayikudy (ASSA). Methods: The programme trains community workers provide early intervention and therapeutic services supported by a transdisciplinary team of rehabilitation specialists using the EI App. Results: During COVID, the EI app evolved to help provide health coaching to parents and children requiring it within the community. 2939 families of children with a neurodevelopmental disability, received services, of which 576 were pre-existing clients and 2363 were recruited through the lockdown. 19% of families received services through video calls and 81% via audio calls, 2-4 times a week. The services were provided by 2 occupational and 30 physiotherapists, 30 speech trainers, 30 special educators and 125 community rehab workers. The video sessions lasted for a mean time of 32 minutes and audio sessions for 26 mins. Health coaching was provided in 2 ways. Mixed approach where the parents and child were directly observed via video calls and coached on interventions and the audio calls were used to check in and trouble shoot queries parents had. Conclusions: Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, ASSA , a rural NGO in India was able to not just sustain , but scale-up service provision for children with disabilities through digital technology via the Enabling Inclusion® app.
Keywords: neurorehabilitation COVID digital technology health coaching developmental disability