Opportunities to Reduce Inequities through Tele-wheelchair Assessments: The Importance of Co-designing Services with indigenous Māori with Lived Experience of Disability

Telehealth-delivered services offer a new dawn, particularly for people with lived experience of disability, with the potential to advance culturally responsive care and provide more equitable health outcomes. However, there remains a risk that existing inequities will persist or increase without careful consideration of the historical context of Indigenous disabled people and their meaningful participation in service design. In this chapter, we outline the opportunities and dilemmas involved in designing telehealth services for wheelchair assessments. Wheelchair assessments are complex and often have profound implications for wheelchair users and their families in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In presenting these perspectives, we draw on our collective experience as wheelchair users and their family members, health professionals, and researchers from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds. We use a Māori-centered approach to privilege the perspectives of Māori wheelchair users and a Māori model of health, the Meihana model, as a framework to explore the implications of telehealth for this population. The chapter concludes with specific recommendations on how a co-designed telehealth wheelchair assessment may contribute to mitigating inequity for Indigenous peoples internationally.