An increasing number of movie halls are improving accessibility for the differently-abled.
For many travellers with special needs, movies are the entertainment of choice. Theatre chains have begun to remove barriers that prevent wheelchair users from taking part in the movie going experience.
28-year-old Gajendra and 30-year-old Goldy have spinal cord injuries. Gajendra fell from a tree, while Goldy was injured in a bike accident. Both are wheelchair users. Like others of their age, they like going out, particularly to the movies.
At the Inox Eros theatre in Delhi, they are joined by 32-year-old Shishir Bhatnagar and his wife. Shishir, a maritime consultant, was injured in a swimming pool accident.
The three are happy that the theatre has no stairs anywhere; there is an accessible lift and toilet. Orders for snacks can be taken both inside the theatre and in the lobby by the theatre staff.
There is a wooden ramp inside the theatre, but Shishir points out that it is steep and they need help wheeling over it. The management promises to build a new one.
Shishir said, "It's also very important that they take feedback from actual wheelchair users. Very often, I have seen a place is made accessible by somebody who doesn't know anything about accessibility.
It's like a loop, because the cinema halls would say why should we put in ramps, people in wheelchairs anyway don't come to see movies? But because it's not accessible they don't come. So, till you don't put in ramps, they are not going to come. It is the same with restaurants and shopping places."
Alok Tandon, CEO of INOX Leisure Ltd, said, "I would say that all our new properties, all the properties that we have designed from as a greenfield project, are accessible. There are few properties which we have acquired over a period of time. There too, we ensure that at least one or two auditoriums are wheelchair friendly."
The simple of act of wheelchair users watching a movie is a great message of equality. Now, theatre owners need to take it to the next level and remove the barriers for the hearing-impaired and the visually-impaired through tools like movie captioning and video description.