Remote disability and leprosy services via basic communications technology

This short report describes the rationale for and process of developing and refining a manual to assist professionals, workers, families, volunteers, and people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), to make better use of appropriate and accessible communications technology. The manual is intended as a basic step towards enhancing disability and leprosy services where they are not accessible and/or affordable to people in remote areas of LMIC. A semi-formal process comprising several layers of feedback and review, and subsequent preliminary evaluation was encouraging. It suggests that the pilot version warrants further implementation as well as more formal research to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness and to refine the content of the manual. Keywords: Disability services, leprosy services, communications technology, volunteers, intermediate level workers