Entertainment events help break barriers for people with sensory issues

Melissa Top cried when she heard the news.

Her son was able to go to a movie like everyone else.

Top’s son is Chance, a 22-year-old man with autism. He went to Sioux Falls' first “sensory-friendly” showing at West Mall 7 in May.

“He feels he’s accomplishing something, and he didn’t think he was going to get to that point either,” Top said. “Something as simple as a movie is changing his viewpoint on the world and that’s amazing.”

The theater accommodated people with autism and sensory issues by raising the lights, lowering the volume and providing an open environment allowing people to make noise and move around the theater.

About 200 people attended the first showing event in May. Attendees weren’t just people with autism—it included families who were taking their children to the movies for the first time. It wasn’t the normal movie theater “shushing” environment, Top said.

Todd Frager, West Mall 7 owner, wants to make the sensory-friendly showings a regular event the last Saturday of every month. The next special showing will be at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Frager hopes to continue the showings because he sees a need for such services in Sioux Falls.

Since the rise in autism diagnoses -- to one in every 68 children around the world -- Sioux Falls businesses such as West Mall 7 are looking for ways to accommodate those customers.

A theater production of the “Wizard of Oz” will offer a sensory-friendly showing in Sioux Falls. The production, featuring a mixed-ability cast, will be July 15 and 16 at Augustana University put on by LifeScape and the Black Hills Playhouse.

The sensory-friendly production will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 16. It will have higher lighting, lower volumes, planned interaction between the performers and the audience, times for the audience to move as part of the show and an available quiet room. Such changes will make it easier for people with autism to adjust to the theater experience.

The sensory-friendly production creates a safe environment for them where the audience "knows this is a special place for individuals with autism and tries to help them be successful when they come to the theater," said Jamie Richardson, project coordinator with LifeScape center for the arts.

"We really understand the importance of creating opportunities for everybody," Richardson said. "We don't want anybody to have a barrier to the arts, period."

Having autism doesn’t mean people can’t be part of the community, said Zach Arens.

Arens works in the front office for the Stampede and Canaries and has worked with LifeScape to bring people to games and be part of the Sioux Falls community.

The response he’s gotten has “been nothing but great,” even bringing more than 100 people from LifeScape to an afternoon Canaries game.

“I don’t see it being any different,” Arens said. “There’s no different reaction from the community.”

That’s one thing Top has noticed in Sioux Falls. People are more accepting of her son than what used to be common, she said. But Sioux Falls can still improve.

“The possibilities can potentially be endless,” Top said. “We just have to look for them and help integrate them.”