ABSTRACT

The abrupt and unexpected arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic forced everybody, and especially children with disabilities, a drastic change in their daily rhythms.

The Robert Hollman Foundation, during the lockdown period, did not want to interrupt its support for its young users with visual impairment, so it promoted a distance support project (DSP-FRH). This online service, completely new as experience, consisted in the creation of “tailor-made” activities for each child, through audio-video calls, the sending of videos and the use of multi-sensory material created specifically by the professionals for that child. This online project has also been implemented for very young children (0-3 years) and highlighted the possibility of using new technologies, in emergencies, even in an area where activity in presence was always considered essential. A satisfaction questionnaire was created to collect feedback from families at the end of the lockdown to evaluate the effectiveness and potential of this proposal. The parents of the children expressed high levels of satisfaction overall, showing how they felt reassured in a very difficult moment, because their children were able to continue the ongoing treatments, even if in a different way from the traditional one. This result encourages us to consider the possibility of expanding existing services, integrating them also with online proposals, to be implemented whenever necessary.