In the driver’s seat

A new local series focuses on the challenges faced by young disabled people getting behind the wheel.

- RUSSELL BROWN

People with disabilities are often expert users of public transport, whether that’s because they can’t drive or choose not to, or because owning and running a car is simply too expensive. But in some places, public transport isn’t a viable option. And besides, earning a driver's licence is a rite of passage in New Zealand. Barriers to doing so are just another form of exclusion.

That's the world Licence to Drive brings us into. The six-part series is the work of Sweet Productions, the disability-led company behind Wheel Blacks: Bodies on the Line. Series producer Robyn Paterson and director Candida Beveridge also made the first season of dating show Down for Love, and editor and executive producer Jai Waite has a long history of making TV about disability, including 15 years with Attitude Pictures.

But Licence to Drive is not