Disability in Sex Education Season 4
Season four of Sex Education featured multiple disabled characters and had a number of discussions about disability. For the most part, these conversations were successful and made important points. There was critical discourse regarding accessibility, safety, disabled anger, infrastructure, and allyship, almost all of which came from disabled people.
Although not named outright, central to the season four narrative was the concept of access fatigue, otherwise understood as the feeling of constantly having to ask people to participate in access. Access fatigue tells us that demanding access for oneself can be taxing and relentless, and gaining access often depends on the individual’s ability to communicate and navigate through relationships and institutional barriers. We see this with Isaac’s fight for a functional elevator.Access fatigue tells us that achieving access can be a strenuous everyday necessity for disabled people, leading many to give up on access altogether. We see this with Aisha’s experience at the movie theatre and when she is purposefully left out of conversations by her friends. In the latter case, Aisha asks for access and is denied, so she stops asking.
In season four, we get to see the disabled characters share their feelings of access fatigue and critique the obstacles and/or individuals who cause these feelings. This has the potential to be a positive first step in what should be an ongoing conversation on access and ableism, as ableism can continue to operate even after access is granted.
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