Shoppers at intu Milton Keynes can don virtual reality headsets and experience a shopping centre visit from the perspective of an autistic child this weekend (August 6 & 7).
The pioneering initiative is part of work by intu and the National Autistic Society to bring better awareness and support for autistic shoppers and their families.
It uses virtual reality to stimulate the sights and sounds of a shopping centre as experienced by someone on the autism spectrum by taking people inside The National Autistic Society’s viral film ‘Can you make it to the end?’.
A range of supportive measures for autistic people including autism-friendly shopping centre guides, specially-designed alert cards and frontline staff training will be rolled out to intu Milton Keynes within the next year.
“We’re pleased to be working with the National Autistic Society to be raising awareness of autism among all our shoppers and our staff using this impactful virtual reality experience," said Shelley Peppard, general manager at intu Milton Keynes.
"This is part of work by intu Milton Keynes to promote social togetherness and tackle local issues within the communities which we serve.”
More than 1 in 100 people are on the autism spectrum. Alex Marshall, the 10-year-old autistic star of the campaign film was said: “It really helps when people understand things, and this is a really cool way to do it – you can just show someone inside your head! When someone’s seen what it’s like, I think they’ll know why I get overwhelmed, and then they’ll understand that I’m not being naughty.”
Mark Lever, Chief Executive of the National Autistic Society said: “Half of autistic people and their families sometimes or often don’t leave their houses because they may receive judgemental and negative reactions to their autism from other members of the public. Virtual reality is such a fantastic medium and we want to use it to help people identify with a young autistic boy who is having a crisis in a shopping centre.”
