Access All Areas.

New year, new Autism friendly sessions....and the (usually great) Riverside Museum have posted their Autism Friendly hours....

 

 

 

 

Yup you read it right, Autism friendly hours are one hour a week 10-11 Friday mornings...but not in December obviously because as we all know we stop being Autistic at Christmas.

 

Other than that the hours are great, if you're a pre-schooler or retired obviously.

 

For everyone else not so much.

 

As someone had posted in reply to them on Twitter, if your kids are school age it's of absolutely no use and I had to add that as an Autistic parent to Autistic children, navigating 'normal' opening hours with kids in tow can be twice as stressful, which is why the previous Sunday sessions were much more convenient.

 

And Riverside's reply?

 

 

 

There's a lot to unpack in this tweet...way too much to actually reply to in a thread but as a starter....

'Having these Friday morning sessions allows us to offer this free of charge'  - Does that mean that other disabled groups are/will be charged to use the museum at other times or is it just Autistic groups that would be charged?

 

'These sessions are for all visitors who prefer a quieter, less crowded environment, young or old' - So the sessions are actually for everyone? So not actually Autistic sessions at all then?

 

As an aside it'd be interesting to know if things like disabled access lifts and the like are only available for one hour a week too.

 

More later.