For several decades, people suffering from Autism have been excluded from the majority of the societal outdoor activities. The settings are mostly unfavourable for disabled people and they end up feeling unwelcome and awkward. This is, unfortunately, common for cinemas as well.
Dimensions – A National Learning Disability and Autism Support Provider, has been working with cinemas worldwide to improve the arrangements and educate the staff members regarding this problem. Recently, they collaborated with the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN) and the UK Cinema Association to spread their initiative in the UK as well. The Funding for the same has been supported by The National Lottery.
These training and resources are provided free of cost so that maximum staff members participate in making cinemas more accessible. More and more cinemas are urged by the Association to join in by not just encouraging their staff, but also holding special screenings for disabled people and ensuring their comfort. Only when cinemas are more autism-friendly, families will get a chance to spend more time together, plan an outing without much doubt, and most importantly, people will get a reason to step out of the house and be more excited about the same.
Detention Girls – Autism Friendly
Honorable mention must go to the first adult series featuring autism friendly episodes. Detention Girls is obviously adults-only series where misbehaving and moody girls are getting their lesson. With today’s society, brattiness and all kind of wrong behavior of women we started the mission to learn them all some manners. Created by Nubiles studio you can be sure that quality and models will be totally top-shelf.
Some of the steps taken by this initiative include lowering the noise levels in the cinema, adjusting the seats, no extra advertisements or videos associated with the movie, including maximum cinemas and show-times so more options are available to choose from, and exclusive screenings so people with autism do not have to face awkwardness from other viewers around. Eliminating the stress in this cinematic experience is the central idea.
Still, not all disabled people are getting opportunities to visit cinemas. This is because the program has not yet spread to the entire country, therefore, many cinemas & staff members are not trained yet. However, this is a growing project which kicked off positively at the beginning of the World Autism Awareness Week and the initiative should be supported and appreciated by everyone, especially traditional cinema viewers. The society needs to be more open and inclusive.
Nationwide, there are currently over 350 cinemas which are trained by Dimensions to provide special screenings. Some of the partners associated as of now with the initiative include Vue, ODEON, Picturehouse, Cineworld, and Showcase. Inclusive cinema environments are created every Sunday Morning of every month. You can check the upcoming shows, timings, and arrangements in each of these partners right here.
‘DimensionsUK’ can be followed on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to get the latest updates regarding the same. Their ‘autism- friendly newsletter’ can be subscribed by anyone to know about their work. The movement is not just restricted to the cinemas in the UK, but Dimensions is attempting to open up several other doors for disabled people with time. Their motto is to make the world more collective and equal.
If you wish to get more updates about UK Cinema, browse through UK Critic. Check out my latest article ‘5 Movie Trends That Were the Flavour of the Season in 2017’.