In 2015 Disabled Access Day, 16 March, began as a day to celebrate good access and to create opportunities for people to try something new. The day was very much about highlighting the fantastic access that already exists in places, experiences such as going on a touch tour, enjoying a relaxed performance, sensory experiences, signed events, level access and of course a warm welcome! Often these activities and experiences are hard to arrange or create a sense of anxiety and fear.
Cinemas across the country offer access for people who may have visible or hidden disabilities, as well as offering specific accessible screenings, such as subtitled, audio described, BSL interpreted, relaxed environment, autism-friendly, and/or dementia-friendly screenings.
Your Local Cinema lists many subtitled and audio-described screenings
Accessible Screenings UK also list autism-friendly, subtitled and audio-described screenings
Project overview The project was set up in January 2016 after a successful six-month residence working with David Ellington as ‘Agent for Change’ funded by Art of England (South West). Watershed’s aim is to develop more inclusive cinema that welcomes D/deaf people to enjoy and be able to chat about films. Aims Focused on engaging … More
ABLEize is the largest and most viewed UK disability database resorce offering hand picked disability, mobility and health related websites and social media pages covering the UK and Europe
Information about 10,000s of venues across the UK and Ireland, including shops, pubs, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, railway stations, hotels, universities, hospitals and more
Reports and insights onto profitability potentials of audiences with disability.
AccessAble (formerly known as Disability Go) create Accessibility Guides. These are a result of an assessment with 125,000 venues individually surveyed and kept up to date. These guides are revisited once every 12 months to reassess any changes. The process is as below:
• Accessibility Guides are created following a detailed survey of each venue
o This ensures the information matches the same level of detail and consistency across all our 125,000 different Guides with over 1,000 pieces of information per venue
• Following the survey, the information is then collated and assembled within an Accessibility Guide template specific for that type of venue
o The templates have been developed continuously over our last 17 years engagement with over 1,600 different disability groups
• There is also produce an internal analysis report which contrasts the surveyors information against national best practice (BS8300:2017)
o This enables you to understand how you can make improvements in a structured approach over time, based on an independent assessment
• The Accessibility Guide is then available on the AccessAble website and also via our mobile app but also as a direct link within another website
o More than 1.7 million different people have used our Accessibility Guides in the last 12 months
• AccessAble will remain in contact throughout the year to make sure the Guide is kept up to date and AccessAble will arrange for our surveyors to return to survey any structural changes in 12 months
o Accuracy is incredibly important, all Accessibility Guides on AccessAble are accurate within a 12 month period.
An example of a Guide for a cinema is here: Stratford East AccessAble Picturehouse Guide.
Here is a document written by AccessAble on the AccessAble guides.
Thinking creatively about formats such as Braille and audio description can help improve accessibility and perceptions about blindness
To ensure the maximum number of people can benefit from watching films in your venue, you may wish to hold screenings with HOH subtitles (HOH stands for ‘Hard of Hearing’) or audio description, which serve Deaf or hard of hearing and partially sighted or blind audiences respectively. It’s important that cinemas are welcoming to all … More
The RNIB’s Sight Loss Data Tool is the UK’s biggest collection of eye health datasets. The product collates a wide range of publically available datasets and allows users to view local area data easily in one of three different automated reports. The full report tells a tailored story about the local area; custom tables allow … More
Developing Inclusive Youth work requires no extra special sets of skills, but in the case of working with children and young people who are deaf this would require learning Sign Language. In fact there’s nothing ‘special’ going on at all. Inclusion is just good practice. it is a ongoing process and not an end in … More
