Hello
We're really sorry that lots of you were upset by that thread - and even more sorry that some posts were allowed to hang around for too long. It's been a rather busy week on the reports front for various reasons, with lots of things that were time-consuming and required a bit of chin-scratching - which meant that we didn't respond as quickly as we'd have liked to. We're not saying this is an excuse but we just wanted to explain a bit about why it happened.
We sent some mails last night to various posters on the thread outlining our thinking in terms of the things we deleted and didn't delete - and we thought it might be useful to share that here as well:
We agree that it's disablist to imply that because of involuntary verbal tics or other behaviour associated with their medical conditions, people with special needs or disabilities should not attend ordinary cinema screenings, or any other public event.
We also think it's disablist to imply that, should a person with special needs or disabilities attend a public event, they would be being selfish or inconsiderate to do so.
We don't, though, think it's disablist to express the viewpoint that you, personally, would find it annoying or disruptive to hear loud or repetitive noises, of any kind, from a fellow audience member. In the end, a person might experience involuntary irritation at loud or repetitive noises from any source during a cinema screening or similar event - and be completely unaware of whether or not the person making the noise had any additional needs; the noise itself is the source of the irritation, rather than the disability.
So that's our thinking on it at the moment - but as ever, we're very open to feedback. So do let us know if you think we're wrong (or right).
Thanks
MNHQ