An extraordinary time: telehealth, COVID-19, and changes to Australian disability policy

Between 2019 and 2024, Australia underwent an “extraordinary” period of disability reform, marked by concurrent reviews including the Disability Royal Commission, an independent NDIS review, and a Senate ADHD Inquiry. This coincided with COVID-19, which accelerated healthcare digitisation, elevating telehealth from a niche service to a public health cornerstone. This article examines disabled people’s telehealth experiences through analysis of policy submissions, tracing a discourse shift from pre-pandemic “last resort” framings to pandemic-era narratives of accessibility. Adopting a human rights and critical disability studies approach, the analysis reveals complex, often contradictory experiences. While people with disability reported real benefits—reduced travel, cost savings, energy conservation, and lower infection risk—significant barriers persisted, including limited device and connectivity access, inadequate digital literacy, inaccessible platforms, and financial constraints. Policy requirements like mandatory in-person visits for continued telehealth eligibility undermined its purpose. Findings confirm that accessibility does not guarantee usability or inclusion, and that rapid, rhetoric-driven normalisation entrenched two-tiered healthcare rather than resolving digital exclusion, exposing a gap between disabled citizens’ lived knowledge and policy influence.