Disability and communication in the covid-19 pandemic

People with disabilities are an important, yet still a largely neglected, group in reporting, representation, and communication of health-related matters. The COVID-19 pandemic offers important lessons for our understanding of how communication was conceived and undertaken for and by disability communities. Drawing on disability media studies approaches, we explore the ways in which powerful ideas of disability shaped societal understanding and responses to COVID-19 and communication, and look at what kinds of communicative responses played out internationally. We argue that disability is not only important in its own right, but a necessary resource for rethinking and redesigning health communication in public health situations-and indeed for the ongoing conversation about the nature and horizons of health communication generally.