Do you find cinemas accessible?

We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

Tori_Scope

The Guardian: Cinemas, autism and accessibility

As cinemas try to encourage visitors post-lockdown, it’s important they cater for movie-goers with autism, says Steve Scown (Chief executive of Dimensions).

Peter Bradshaw is quite right that many people still love the “democracy and equality” of going to the cinema together (After the intermission: films are back in cinemas – but will the crowds return too?, 24 August). However, this only applies if screenings are actually accessible to all.

People with autism or other sensory issues can be put off trips to the cinema if the foyer environment and ticket-purchasing experience (including issues such as lighting) are too overwhelming and stressful, or if staff are not trained in autism awareness.

But there is real demand for accessible screenings. Indeed, our research has found clear majorities of people with autism who visit the cinema do so because they prefer it to streaming at home, with the main reasons for this being getting to see a film on a big screen and experiencing the joy of going out.

Thankfully, adjustments can often be easily made to cinemas to enable autism-friendly screenings, and many cinemas host these at least once a month. Dimensions offers free training to independent cinemas so they can host their own autism-friendly screenings.

Do you find cinemas accessible? Have you made use of any adjustments to make going to the cinema more accessible? Do you think cinemas do enough to make going to the cinema accessible for people with autism?

rubin16

I personally can't handle cinema's as they put me on edge, they're normally crowded, too noisy and not sensory friendly. I normally just watch things at home when they are released. I didn't know there was sensory friendly showings but I don't know how much this will change things, as the whole cinema environment would have to change.

If things did change though, I would perhaps give it a go again. but even getting out the house for me is a big step and gives me anxiety, let alone going to the shopping centre (Cinema is in a big retail place for me) which itself is a nightmare, and then going to the cinema. Just thinking about it puts me off.

Aside from me though I do like the way they are catering for people with sensory issues, as not everyone is the same on the spectrum so others may be able to tolerate it more. I must admit though the whole cinema envoronment like mike says is not friendly towards other disabilities too and should really be catering for more walk of life, not just autism however its a good step forward.