Overview

It’s often so difficult to go to the cinema when you are disabled as you end up in the front of the cinema and end up with a nasty crick in your neck. This was not true at the DCA. I went with some friends to the cinema today and they could not work out how you prebooked the wheelchair seats. (Having looked since it’s not actually hard you just have to email or Phone and ask). When we got there the staff were really helpful and said we could chose whether to sit up in the wheelchair seats or if we preferred we could sit in our booked seats and it’s fully ramped to the front at the right hand sided. We chose to sit in our booked seats as it is currently quiet with the Covid spacing of seats so we knew we wouldn’t be stopping anyone getting to their seats further in the row. Maybe not an option if it was busy or if you struggle to transfer but worked for us and the seats were really comfy. The staff were all really helpful and nice to be able to sit in the cinema seats as there was ramped access.

Transport & Parking

4.5

There is disabled parking behind the DCA, there is a lift that takes you up to the bar and cinema floor which is smallish but no smaller than a lift you might find in a hotel or sports place. At the moment you are only meant to have the person in the lift so didn’t feel that cramped for me.

Access

4.5

I only was going to the cinema and was able to go there without a problem and there was a lift to easily get you from the car park to the building rather than having to do the long walk round by the Nethergate to get to the Normal entrance. Not sure whether when there is not COVID restrictions you can use the back entrance apart from for disabled access.

Toilets

3.5

The toilet I used beside the cinema was easy to find and fine for my needs but if you were using a power chair or needed a carers help to transfer or toilet then I think it would have been a bit small. It was nice and clean and tidy and it had the necessary grab rails that I needed but it was on the smaller side so would have maybe been a bit of a challenge to manoeuvre a larger chair in.

Staff

4.5

They were all really helpful and checked where we wanted to sit rather than just presuming that we had to sit at the back.