This study considers telecommunication as a technological extension of fundamental human communication, and elaborates on telecommunication in a specific area like vocational rehabilitation, the relevance of previous experience with telecommunication to vocational rehabilitation, deciding where telecommunication will be best placed in a process model for long range planning, and designing and using the process model. Sufficiency, reliability, adaptability, and utility are detailed as four criteria against which telecommunication systems can be evaluated so that the study may be used as an approach for planners in determining which problems in their local situations may be resolved by some form of telecommunication. A 57-item bibliography is included. (JEG)