Autism Friendly Cinema

[ProcrastinatingPanda]

I thought I'd share with you all incase anybody is interested, Cineworld has a new partnership with Autism Friendly Film and are now making some of their screenings autism friendly.

Changes include:

The lights will be on low.

The volume will be turned down.

There will be no trailers at the beginning of the film.

You'll be able to take your own food and drinks.

You'll be able to move around the cinema if you like.

You know what? Ds finds it easier to cope with 'normal' cinema conditions when it is dark and no distractions than he does with being able to see lots of moving around people.

But I guess if he were noisy I woukd be grateful for a place to ake him where it woukdn't get us rude comments.

DS loves the cinema but does complain about the noise when it gets too loud, and goes to the toilet several times too so it would be good if he wasn't disturbing people by getting up and down constantly. We also tend to go in as late as possible (without missing the film) as he gets frustrated at waiting for the trailers to finish. I think this is a really good idea, now we just need to remortgage to afford to buy cinema tickets :o

We took dd to see Madagascar last month and it went really well. That was the Odeon though, good to see other cinema chains getting on board too.
First time ever we had managed to have a cinema trip and made us feel like a normal family doing normal things!!

Also one adult was classed as dd's carer so only paid for dd and one adult. Made it a bit cheaper. I took a letter as proof of her disability but nobody asked to see it.

No trailers is genius. DS can't cope with walking in in the dark, but the trailers are so loud they cause him real pain.

I think this is an excellent idea. I hate trailers and the loudness.

DD however would get irritated by other people moving around and making noise and not doing it properly. (antisocial impatient unempathetic brat that she is)

link for those who are interested

We went to the odeon to see madagasker at this screening too-like star I was unsure if it would be the right thing as I wondered if dd would be more likely to move about etc if others were.

It was great though, really nice to not have the ads and the staff were also all very nice and didn't bat an eyelid when dd stayed at the end till the film's credits were all done(quite a while but there is no way of moving her on she was telling the man clearing up"switch it off now" and he was really nice and had a chat about why he couldn't turn it off but she was welcome to stay till it stopped running.

No one actually did move about I don't think and there was a bit of noise but nothing to interupt the film. And I loved that it was quiet enough that we didnt have to sit with anyone next to us and we took our own snacks.

DS1 has been to see 3 of the previous 4 screenings - one of them after throwing up all over M&S before the film started - he was blown if he was going home once he'd made the 1/2 hour journey!

He does enjoy them, though and we'd never even persuaded him to go near a cinema before then. The cinema is usually little more than 1/4 full, so he doesn't have to sit next to anyone he doesn't know

Don't think the december film will appeal, though.

Oh - and the first time he went, there was a girl shuffling backwards and forwards inspecting all the seat numbers. Everyone Understood.

We've been to quite a few films and it's always fairly empty so you don't really notice when people move about as they are so far away.

We actually went to 'grown up' cinema to watch Skyfall tonight (very rare occurance but it's my birthday) and I had trouble keeping my mouth shut as I'm used to being able to talk and not bother anyone.

These autism friendly showings are a godsend for us and we go nearly every month. Ds1 loves the cinema but does get noisy, esp during exciting bits so we could never do normal showings.

We've never had anyone moving around and most other people there are completely silent but at least they can't judge ds1 for his noises. In fact there are only ever a few people at every showing so it's especially relaxed.

When I take dd on our own (to normal showings) I'm often appalled at the noise and bad behaviour that goes on in comparison!

I'm so grateful for things like this. I nearly cried the first time we went to an autism friendly showing...I had always thought the cinema was something we would never ever be able to do as a family. And there we were!!

Usually the kids are really well-behaved and it's nice to be with other people who understand how difficult it can be for our children to visit the cinema. Must admit I was annoyed once when a small boy was wrecking the grille on a sort of vent thing under the screen and the mum made no effort at all to stop him. I mean letting your child enjoy the freedom of being able to see a film under their own terms doesn't mean you let them vandalise the place . She won't think it's so 'cute' in a few years!

Used ds has to stay until the end of the credits too . We never knew that until we went to autism-friendly cinema as we'd never been able to stay until the end before.

Ah yes dd has to see things out. Whats funny is her god father is the same so I am used to it-at least dd will leave her seat and stand up whereas he won't budge!

Got my Dimensions email, today and noticed that a few Cineworld cinemas have joined in. I'm guessing to fill some of the gaps, because neither of the ones near us is on the list.