TATT's Persons with Disabilities Initiative — Subsidising Assistive-Feature Smartphones in Trinidad and Tobago

The Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT), the country's telecom regulator, runs a Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) Initiative that began in September 2020. It subsidises up to TTD $900 toward the purchase of a mobile device with assistive features — such as screen readers or hearing-aid compatibility — for residents who are visually or hearing impaired, or who otherwise have a disability and receive a qualifying government grant.
Eligibility runs through two routes: applicants with any disability who receive a grant from the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, or applicants who are visually or hearing impaired and receive an invalidity grant, public assistance, food-support cards, or a senior citizens' pension, with medical evidence required. According to TATT's own PWDs Initiative page, applicants apply by email, phone, text or WhatsApp and submit identification and disability documentation for verification.
AMCHAM Trinidad and Tobago's Q3 2024 'Linkage' publication, citing TATT and the national Digital Inclusion Survey, reported that 1,239 persons with disabilities had received subsidised devices to date, against a baseline in which only 57.3% of PWDs owned a mobile phone and just 1% used digital government services. Neither source publishes a follow-up evaluation of how recipients used the devices or whether digital-service uptake among PWDs subsequently rose, so the programme's downstream impact remains undocumented.

Read the full analysis: https://tatt.org.tt/universal-service/persons-with-disabilities-initiative/