It has been a long-standing wish of people with disabilities to be able to walk in the city without any obstacles while sitting in a wheelchair. For Mr. Cai from Hangzhou, sitting in a wheelchair and watching a movie without any barriers is his new wish in the near future. This week, on the eve of National Disability Day, cinemas in Hangzhou, Shanghai and other places launched wheelchair-friendly cinemas. Mr. Cai immediately bought a ticket and hoped to experience it. The process of entering the mall was relatively smooth, and it was not difficult to find the cinema by taking the escalator. What made him most curious was where he would sit in the theater.
There is a small threshold when entering the theater, but you can pass it with a little effort. Mr. Cai's movie tickets are located in the last row and can be reached as soon as you enter the door without going through the slope or stairs. Mr. Cai propped himself up with his hands and sat on the seat at the far end.
This theater is one of the five halls in the cinema. The other four halls are not classified as wheelchair-friendly halls because they are not barrier-free. When Mr. Cai and his friends were invited to experience these ordinary movie theaters, they encountered the same obstacles they usually face when watching movies.
Mr. Cai, a citizen of Hangzhou, Zhejiang: For a theater like this, you still need to walk down a long step. For us, it is also a very laborious and dangerous thing.
Sometimes when I buy a ticket to enter the venue, I find that the entrance is on steps and wheelchairs cannot enter, so the ticket can only be refunded. What is more common is that most movie theaters are in the first row as soon as they enter. In order to avoid running up, people with disabilities can only sit in the first row to watch the movie. Some movie theaters even directly set the first row to the side as wheelchair seats. . The first row is closer to the screen, requiring you to look up the whole time, which creates a poor experience.
Mr. Cai, a citizen of Hangzhou, Zhejiang: Because of the inconvenience of our objective movement, even if we buy tickets for those in the back, we basically can only sit in the first row.
Ms. You, a citizen of Hangzhou, Zhejiang: You have to raise your neck all the time when saying the first words of , which is very painful. If you want to go up, you have to be carried up by others. It’s been more than 20 years since I had a car accident. I went to the cinema twice in total during these 20 years. Four volunteers carried me up five or six steps, and then back again after watching. Watching a movie requires four people to carry it, which makes me feel really sad.
In order to solve this problem, the "wheelchair-friendly halls" launched by theaters in Hangzhou and other places were screened among many theaters. In some wheelchair-friendly theaters, wheelchairs can go directly to the last row, while others can go directly to the middle aisle, allowing disabled friends to look at the screen and even watch movies in C-position.
Manager Wang of a movie theater in Hangzhou: When the movie theater was being built, we also reserved a movie hall as a convenient facility for barrier-free viewing. People with disabilities can push wheelchairs directly into the optimal viewing area. It is needless to say that the barrier-free seats were set up in the first row like before, so you need to look up to watch the whole movie.
According to statistics from a ticket purchasing platform, this week, more than 60 "wheelchair-friendly halls" were launched in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. After people with disabilities find relevant theaters on the platform, the wheelchair-friendly theaters have been marked, and which rows can be wheelchair-friendly are also marked. In the first week after the launch, people with disabilities gained a fresh experience and also put forward higher requirements. Ms. You suggested that in the current wheelchair-friendly halls, disabled people often can only sit in the aisles. Can they imitate the practice in Hong Kong and other places and remove some normal seats and set up a special area for wheelchairs? Shen Lihui, the relevant person in charge of the
ticketing platform: We hope to expand the number of barrier-free theaters, including the barrier-free capabilities of the theaters. Disabled partners will still encounter certain obstacles after entering the barrier-free theaters, including the width of the aisles and the There is a slope into the cinema door. Let the theater optimize some of its guidelines, including some auxiliary functions to help people with disabilities enter the theater.
In recent years, for the visually impaired, some places have allowed the visually impaired to "hear" movies through volunteer narration. Now, the launch of the "Wheelchair Friendly Hall" is clearing the way for people with disabilities in wheelchairs to watch movies.Today, as the cause of accessibility is developing day by day, spiritual needs such as watching movies deserve to be seen and respected.
Mr. Cai, a citizen of Hangzhou, Zhejiang: movies are a great spiritual need for me and can make people feel better. If more and more barrier-free theaters like this appear in the future, we will definitely visit them frequently and feel that we can integrate into this society.
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