Good idea: Cinema screenings for children with autism and sensory difficulties

Provider Dimensions and Film Education
Name Autism Friendly Films
Summary Cinemas have teamed up with a film charity and provider of autism support to help children with autism and sensory difficulties to enjoy the experience of going to the cinema

To mark Autism Awareness Month in April, Dimensions, a provider of support to people with autism and learning disabilities, partnered with the charity Film Education to improve cinema access for schoolchildren with autism.

The event involved special screenings of Disney film The Muppets across 60 cinemas, which used subtle alterations to help the experience of children with autism and sensory difficulties.

These included keeping the lights turned on low, lowering the volume and allowing people to move around the cinema or make noises as they wanted to.

Dimensions wants greater community inclusion, choice and control for children and young people with autism and their families. By partnering with Film Education and cinemas it hopes to make the cinema environment more inclusive to children who might have been unable to attend mainstream films with their peers in the past.

Dimensions’ executive director of specialist development Lisa Hopkins says: “Initiatives such as this require small adjustments that make a big difference to people who experience autism and show what can be achieved when education and industry come together.”

The initiative was a free event specifically aimed at school pupils, but the three cinema chains – Odeon, Apollo and Picturehouse – have also been holding more regular showings.

Roger Harris, chief operating officer of the Odeon and UCI Cinema Group, says it is important to make cinema accessible to all: “We’ve been delighted with the success and feedback from our autism-friendly screenings so far, which we now run monthly in 87 cinemas across the country. We were thrilled to work with Film Education to run screenings for schools.”