1SpecialPlace Recognised for Zero Project Awards 2027: A Global Milestone in Accessible Rehabilitation

1SpecialPlace’s Tele-Rehabilitation Accessibility Ecosystem has been recognised among 159 innovative solutions worldwide for the Zero Project Awards 2027. Selected from 615 nominations received from 94 countries, the recognition comes as 1SpecialPlace completes 12 years of building accessible, technology-enabled rehabilitation from India.

There is a particular kind of quiet that falls over a room when good news lands.

Not the loud, confetti-cannon kind. The kind where everyone looks at each other for a second because the news feels bigger than the noise you could make about it.

That was the kind of quiet we had at 1SpecialPlace when we found out.

Our Tele-Rehabilitation Accessibility Ecosystem had been recognised among 159 innovative solutions from 59 countries across six continents for the Zero Project Awards 2027.

And somehow, the timing made it even more special.

This is our 12th year.

Twelve years of trying to answer one question:

How can specialist rehabilitation reach the person who needs it, rather than expecting the person to somehow reach the specialist?  

What Is the Zero Project, and Why Does This Recognition Matter?  

The Zero Project is an initiative of the Essl Foundation in Vienna that identifies and shares innovative solutions contributing to the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD).

Its work is grounded in a powerful idea: many of the limitations experienced by persons with disabilities are created or intensified by barriers around them — barriers to access, participation, technology, services and opportunity.

For the Zero Project Awards 2027, the global call focused on Independent Living, Political Participation and Assistive Technology.

The response was extraordinary: 615 nominations from 94 countries. Following the first stage of review, 159 innovative solutions from 59 countries across six continents were shortlisted.

1SpecialPlace is one of them. The recognition has another connection that makes it especially meaningful to us. The Zero Project Conference is held at the United Nations Office at Vienna, bringing together innovators, experts, policymakers, organisations and leaders from the international disability inclusion community.

For an idea that began in India in 2014, being recognised within this global movement for disability inclusion is deeply significant.

 

Twelve Years Ago, We Started With a Question  

When 1SpecialPlace began, teletherapy was far from mainstream in India.

But the problem we could see was simple.

Expertise existed. Families needed it. Access did not always connect the two.

Geography mattered. Mobility mattered. The availability of trained professionals mattered. Time, travel and continuity of care mattered.

A family should not have to move cities or travel for hours simply to find the right rehabilitation professional.

So we started exploring a different possibility.

What if specialist rehabilitation could travel to the person?

A screen became the bridge.

But as we grew, we realised something important.

The screen was never the innovation. The ecosystem around it was.

 

We Didn’t Just Put Therapy Online  

Over 12 years, 1SpecialPlace has evolved into what we call the 1SpecialPlace Tele-Rehabilitation Accessibility Ecosystem.

It brings together qualified rehabilitation professionals, multidisciplinary intervention, structured clinical pathways, caregiver participation, clinical supervision, technology-enabled continuity and systems for monitoring progress and quality.

Our work today spans Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Special Education, Mental Health Services, Feeding and Swallowing Intervention and Adult Neurorehabilitation.

Technology enables us to bridge distance. But people remain at the centre.

Because rehabilitation is not simply what happens during a therapy session.

It happens when a parent understands how to carry a communication strategy into everyday life.

When a caregiver becomes confident enough to support progress between sessions.

When different professionals work towards shared goals.

When progress is reviewed rather than assumed.

And when care can continue even when geography would otherwise interrupt it.

We didn’t simply digitise a clinic. We redesigned how specialist rehabilitation could reach people.  

42,000+ Individuals and Families. 80,000+ Sessions. 12 Years of Learning.  

The numbers have grown with us.

• 42,000+ individuals and families supported.

• 80,000+ rehabilitation sessions delivered.

• 130+ women rehabilitation professionals provided with flexible professional opportunities.

But numbers alone don't explain impact.

Behind them is a child finding a new way to communicate.

A person rebuilding communication following a neurological event.

A family finally reaching the specialist they had been searching for.

A parent becoming more confident about supporting therapy goals at home.

And a woman rehabilitation professional finding a flexible way to continue the clinical career she trained for.

These may look like different outcomes.

To us, they are different dimensions of the same idea: Accessibility.

 

Built With Families, Not Simply for Them  

One of our greatest lessons over these 12 years has been that meaningful rehabilitation cannot be designed for people while leaving them outside the process.

Families and caregivers are active partners in the 1SpecialPlace model.

Their questions, realities, feedback and experiences have continually influenced the way we deliver care.

Initiatives such as 1SpecialMother grew from this same understanding — that supporting a child also means empowering and supporting the caregiver who carries so much of the rehabilitation journey into everyday life.

Our approach continues to evolve because the people using a system often understand its barriers better than anyone designing it.

So we listen.

We learn.

We change.

It is an idea that continues to guide us:

Nothing for them, without them.  

Building a Different Kind of Disability Enterprise  

There is another reason this recognition matters to us.

Disability inclusion has historically had a strong foundation in NGOs, charities and the social sector, whose work remains indispensable.

But creating a truly inclusive world requires participation from every sector.

For 12 years, we have been trying to build another part of that ecosystem.

A bootstrapped, clinician-led, mission-driven business built around rehabilitation access.  

We are a business.

But we began with a mission.

And we have spent 12 years trying to demonstrate that the two do not have to be opposites.

Not just therapy.

But teams. Processes. Technology. Caregiver partnerships. Professional capacity. Clinical systems.

And models designed to reach further.

We believe a sustainable organisation can begin with a social problem.

It can pursue clinical excellence while building strong systems.

It can create employment while creating access.

It can grow commercially while remaining accountable to the people it exists to serve.

And growth does not simply have to mean becoming bigger.

The ambition is to make the impact bigger.  

From India to a Global Conversation on Disability Inclusion  

Perhaps this is what makes the Zero Project recognition particularly meaningful.

The problem we began trying to solve in India 12 years ago belongs to a much larger global conversation.

A conversation about access.

About independence.

About participation.

About bringing services closer to people.

About using technology to remove barriers rather than create new ones.

About creating opportunities for persons with disabilities to participate more fully in their families, education, work, communities and society.

These principles are closely aligned with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilitiesand with the global movement towards more inclusive systems.

For us, the UN CRPD is not simply a framework to reference.

Its ideas of participation, accessibility, independence and inclusion reflect outcomes we have been trying to build into everyday rehabilitation for the past 12 years.

That is why this recognition matters.

 

To Everyone Who Built This With Us  

To every family who trusted an unfamiliar model when teletherapy itself was unfamiliar.

To every therapist who learnt how to make a screen feel human.

To every caregiver who asked a difficult question and helped us improve.

To every professional who believed rehabilitation could reach beyond the walls of a clinic.

To every partner who helped us reach further.

And to every member of the 1SpecialPlace team who built another process because the existing one wasn't good enough.

This recognition belongs to the ecosystem you helped us build.

Twelve years ago, 1SpecialPlace began with an idea in India.

Today, the 1SpecialPlace Tele-Rehabilitation Accessibility Ecosystem stands among 159 innovative solutions worldwide recognised for the Zero Project Awards 2027.

We are proud of how far the idea has travelled.

But we are even more excited about how much further the impact can go.

Because access to rehabilitation should be determined by need, not geography.  

People. Potential. Possibilities.