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Applied:Accessibility and inclusion

11 results

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Each card carries an evidence label. What this means

Conceptual paper collage of an open cinema doorway leading into a welcoming shared space; no cultural motifs and not ACMI material.
Practical IdeaObserved
Community engagement

Build a community-specific route into screen culture

ACMI in Naarm/Melbourne offers free Blak Membership to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including cinema and exhibition access and community events, with defined limits on free tickets.

Australia
Read the briefing
Editorial collage of a cinema entrance with community members walking in, connected by a ribbon to a blank invitation card.
Practical IdeaObserved
Community engagement

Bring a community partner and funder into a cinema screening

A free JIMPA screening at Reading Cinemas Busselton on 11 October 2026 was hosted through a local Pride wellbeing festival and funded as part of Mental Health Week. A community organisation brought relevance, a funder removed the ticket charge and the cinema supplied a familiar venue.

Australia
Read the briefing
Conceptual editorial collage of a blank ticket passed across a table beside transit and childcare paper fragments leading to a cinema doorway.
Practical IdeaObserved
Community engagement

Help with the costs beyond the cinema ticket

Glasgow Film's Samizdat Audience Access Fund can help with tickets, childcare and travel, without proof of eligibility. The fund recognises that a cheaper ticket alone does not remove every attendance barrier.

United Kingdom
Read the briefing
Cinemas in Action editorial graphic explaining MediCinema at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in United Kingdom.
Case StudyReach
Accessibility

Measure hospital cinema use as attendances, not unique patients

MediCinema reported 2,638 attendances across 122 screenings in Birmingham during its first six months. These are attendances including patients, families, carers and staff, not unique patients.

United Kingdom
Read the briefing
Cinemas in Action editorial graphic for Sensinema sensory-control screenings in Ireland.
Case StudyObserved
Community engagement

Give audiences more control of sensory screenings

Sensinema frames accessible cinema as an experience with greater audience control over sensory conditions. The event design is visible; attendance, satisfaction and repeat behaviour are not.

Ireland
Read the briefing
Case StudyAudience results
Accessibility

Free tickets are not the metric: measure what audiences do next

ESCAPES has distributed more than 250,000 free accessible tickets across hundreds of UK cinemas. The reported figures show reach, satisfaction and intention — not yet what those audiences did on their next visit.

United Kingdom
Read the briefing

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Five-step assisted listening service funnel: find access information, check device, connect, watch, give feedback.
Practical IdeaObserved
Accessibility

Make assisted listening easier to use, not just available

Vue currently lists 18 cinemas with Auracast, allowing compatible personal hearing devices, earbuds or headphones to receive cinema audio directly rather than through loaned equipment.

United Kingdom
Read the briefing
Three cards showing audio description, closed captions and app or sign-language support before booking.
Evidence UpdateObserved
Accessibility

Show accessibility information before the ticket is bought

A 2026 directive requires major ticketing platforms to make film and performance accessibility information clear before purchase, including external-app delivery where relevant.

India
Read the briefing
Three cards showing a cleared film programme, access assets and a portable host toolkit.
Case StudyObserved
Community engagement

Package a specialist festival so it can travel

Cinema Touching Disability reused a proven short-film programme for its first Houston edition and offers past line-ups for collaborative screenings throughout the year.

United States
Read the briefing
Three cards showing subtitles, audio description and wet-weather fallback for an outdoor cinema programme.
Case StudyObserved
Community engagement

Make accessibility standard across an outdoor programme

INCinema OUTSIDE embeds subtitles and smartphone audio description across a distributed summer programme instead of treating access as a specialist event in one venue.

Italy
Read the briefing
The exterior of Midlands Arts Centre in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, with an editorial title about accessibility as a programming system.
Case StudyReach
Community engagement

Build accessibility into the cinema programme, not around it

Midlands Arts Centre’s Expanding the Frame project treated accessibility as a programming, audience-development and organisational system. The published case study reports attendance above its year-three estimate, while leaving cost, revenue and long-term retention questions open.

United Kingdom
Read the briefing