Accessibility Guide: Dementia Friendly Screenings
In becoming ‘dementia friendly’, cinema staff are made aware of how to make small adjustments to the environment that create a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere for people with dementia. This guide shares some resources and information for South West exhibitors looking to learn more about inclusive screenings.
Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends programme is the biggest ever initiative to change people’s perceptions of dementia, aiming to transform the way the nation acts, thinks, talks about the condition. The guide and video below have been designed to help improve accessibility and become more dementia-friendly.
UK Cinema Association Guidance
In 2017, the Alzheimer’s Society and the BFI Film Audience Network joined forces with the UK Cinema Association to produce a written guide to help cinemas introduce regular dementia-friendly screenings across the UK.
Since then, the sector has seen the steady growth of dementia-friendly screenings – which require cinemas to make a number of subtle adjustments to support those with dementia and other related conditions – which have now become a particular feature of recent years.
To accompany the written guide, a training video was also produced in 2021 to help cinemas and their staff programme and run dementia friendly screenings.
Speciality Listings Websites:
- Your Local Cinema “Accessible, inclusive subtitled/captioned shows enable film fans with hearing loss to ENJOY rather than endure cinema. For a few hours, the disabling barrier is removed. They provide social benefits such as equality, inclusion and community integration. There were more than a million admissions to accessible shows in 2019!”
- Accessible Screenings UK “Accessible Screenings UK is owned by and managed on behalf of the UK Cinema Association. The UKCA is the trade body that represents well over 90 per cent of UK cinema operators, including all of the major cinema circuits as well as smaller mainstream and more specialised cinema sites.”
Information Pack Template
The document below is a template so you can prepare your own information pack for your dementia-friendly screenings. You will need to complete information based on the specificities of your venue and the screenings you provide. Copy that you may like to use is in regular font. Guidance notes are in italics.
This guide was produced based on an existing pack produced by Oldham Coliseum, and guidance from A Life More Ordinary, a pioneering dementia-friendly project led by Dukes Lancaster, with support from The Rayne Foundation, Esmee Fairbairn, and the BFI Film Audience Network.
- Dementia-Friendly Screening Information Pack Template [Word] Download
It’s never been more important for us to look at how we make audiences feel safe and welcomed into cinema spaces, particularly those audiences who may have already felt excluded before the pandemic and have found returning difficult. These resources help to destigmatise people’s understanding of dementia and to build confidence in a workforce who are devoted to providing meaningful experiences for their communities. Toki Allison, BFI Film Audience Network Inclusion Project Manager at Film Hub Wales.
Case Study
Tyneside Cinema’s Dementia Friendly Cinema monthly daytime film screenings are based on a successful action research pilot project run in 2015. The pilot was initiated by the Elders Council of Newcastle, supported by a steering group of specialist partners, part funded by the Ballinger Charitable Trust and evaluated by Newcastle University’s Institute for Ageing.
This case study highlights the challenges addressed, the careful planning and approach taken, as well as the outcomes and learning from the pilot. The experience and learning from the pilot project informed the new three-year screening programme, which launched in Dementia Awareness Week in May 2016.
- Dementia Friendly Cinema Case Study, May 2016 [PDF] Download
Watershed is the Lead Film Hub Organisation for Film Hub South West, part of the BFI Film Audience Network.
Watershed is a Registered Charity No. 284188 and a Social Enterprise
Watershed, 1 Canons Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TX
Film Hub South West &
BFI NETWORK South West
are part of the BFI Film Audience Network, supported by The National Lottery.
