Introducing Autism-friendly screenings for adults at Hyde Park Picture House
New monthly Autism-friendly screenings.
At HPPH, we’re passionate about making our cinema feel like it’s everyone’s. It’s an important part of our community, and has been since 1914, so we want it to be a place everyone can call a second home. Therefore, it’s important to address any barriers putting any members of our community off visiting the Picture House.
While the Picture House Project helped remove a lot of those physical barriers, we’re constantly trying to think about other obstacles we can overcome to become more accessible. For some audience members, including Autistic and neurodiverse people, standard screenings can be overwhelming. They can be too loud, too crowded and involve too many restrictions.
With that in mind, we are happy to introduce new, regular monthly Autism-friendly screenings. Adjustments you can expect at these screenings include:
- Lower film volume.
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Reduced auditorium capacity to avoid crowding.
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Relaxed attitude to audiences moving in and out of the auditorium and making noise.
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Dimmed lighting rather than no lights.
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Prompt start times with no ads or trailers.
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No music before or after the film.
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Hand dryers will be turned off in bathrooms.
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Plasma screens around the building will be off or set to a single, static slide and visual clutter around the building will be cleared.
The unexpected can be a barrier in itself for some audiences, so you can find more information about access at the Picture House, including familiarising yourself with the building before visiting, here on our access page. If you have any questions before visiting, our friendly team are always happy to help and can be contacted on info@hpph.co.uk or 0113 275 2045. We are always striving to improve so we would also love to hear your feedback.
Since there is a limited capacity at our Autism-friendly screenings, pre-booking is advised as they usually sell out. We also ask customers to let us know if they can no longer attend, if possible, so we know if there is space for other people to attend.
Although these screenings have been designed with neurodiverse audiences in mind, they are open to all. We also have weekly family Autism-friendly screenings on Sundays at 11:00. You can find out more about these here.
Photo by Jim Stephenson: https://clickclickjim.com/.
