Can I purchase a smart phone, laptop or ipad to access therapy when self isolating?

Generally it is not common that the purchase of a laptop would be granted by the NDIS. This is because the purchase of a laptop would be considered as a ordinary expense. For example, if you go to school and under COVID-19 you need to school from home now but you don’t have a laptop, that’s the same as all children and so isn’t likely to be disability related. Funds are required to be utilised for disability related supports only.

However, if you have a disability and you would like to continue to access your therapy supports, but cannot as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and you haven’t got a smart phone, computer or tablet already, then a cheap iphone, tablet or laptop might well be claimable. Evidence for this would be best suppoted by an OT letter advising of meeting these criteria. The item is best to not be top of the model and under $1000. If you want an iPad, you could consider claiming only a portion of the iPad – the same amount as if you bought a cheap tablet. For some people, they will need the features an iPad offers (hearing aid connection/guided access etc), but this won’t apply to most participants.