Ulyanovsk. The disabled waited for the governor

In the Ulyanovsk cinema "Lumier" a cinema hall for people with limited mobility was opened

Its difference from the usual hall is that there are no mounted rows of seats in it, so a disabled person in his stroller can be placed where it is convenient and not to lift his head to see the screen. There is where to put a chair for the accompanying person. The cinema hall can take up to 50 people, the usual repertoire of cinemas will be shown here, but, in addition, the cinema "Louis", as it was named in honor of the youngest of the Lumiere brothers, will become the place of club and family communication of the disabled.

The chairman of the Ulyanovsk city organization of disabled people Elena Latipova believes that the city needs such a hall: “It was necessary to do it because the hall is very comfortable, ” she says. - We have been waiting for this for a long time, and for us this is really a holiday. All halls and cinemas should be available to disabled people, all entertainment centers, but, I think, this will be a good start and example for others. I do not think that only people with disabilities will come here. I do not think that this is a reservation, they just made access for us more. ”

The young psychologist Anna Kutinova, who uses a wheelchair, says that a specialized cinema hall for few mobility causes her mixed feelings. “Of course, it’s great that it is, but the creation of special cinemas and cafes is, to some extent, hidden discrimination. It was like Black Blacks before. It seems to be integration, as they say, but still in some kind of closed space, ” Kutinova believes.

The reconstruction of the Lumier cinema was carried out by the regional state enterprise "Ulyanovskinomfond". Its director Lidia Saurova says that there is no insulation of disabled people, we are talking about an additional opportunity for communication:

“It would be nice to equip all cinemas for the disabled. The disabled and I talked, they say: sometimes the guards in the cinema will be taken, they will enter where it is necessary, it is possible, but still it is uncomfortable to watch. Even raising the head once again - and it is inconvenient. The usual cinema is still designed for a healthy viewer who will sit down and fall apart as it is convenient for him. And the parameters of this mini-kinosal will be comfortable. Disabled people do not need to strain, twist their heads, they will directly look at the screen. Before the launch of this cinema, we invited wheelchair users, they themselves watched the film here and said that it was convenient and comfortable for them. Then, we want this to become a place of communication. Suppose your birthday, we will agree-you will bring your friends here: we drank tea-coffee, watched your favorite film, maybe the frames of family newsreels-that is, arranged for themselves such a large “film-day of birth”. These forms of work we will cultivate here. ”

The chairman of the Public Council of the Center for Communication of Lesser Citizens, entrepreneur Andrei Tokarchuk says that the communication of disabled people on the Internet is a big step forward in overcoming social borders, but any person in the usual, rather than virtual social environment feels more comfortable. In his opinion, recently, Ulyanovsk has become more friendly for the disabled, albeit with reservations.

“We see that the city is changing, ramps appear, ” he says. - New buildings have ramps, but not all of them are adapted. Sometimes the type of ramp is amazed, which even a healthy person cannot use, not to mention the winter period. Nevertheless, the city is changing for the better, now you can get to the places where it was impossible to get to the wheelchair before. ”

The poetess from Novoulyanovsk Elena Lukhmanova is pleased with the appearance of a specialized cinema. She says that she rarely gets into public events:

“In our city, there is a cinema with 100 seats, but only it is on the second floor, you won’t get there without assistants. Disabled only in childhood, while small ones, could get into the cinema, but now no one goes anywhere. I get out into the city only for some special event within the framework of the society of disabled people, and never. We have a problem with transport, do someone have relatives with a car who will help to take it. We would have made special entrances for strollers on minibuses, then they themselves could ride, as abroad. ”

The lawyer Veronika Rozhkova, despite his disability, regularly happens in the cinema and in the theater: “There are changes that are quite noticeable, if you compare several years ago and now, now it has become more and more accessible, but the problems remain. Sometimes it depends not only on specific performers, some buildings of the old building cannot be reconstructed for the convenience of disabled people. ”

The reconstruction of the cinema Lumier cost 10 million rubles. Money was equally received from the federal and regional budgets. A specialized cinema hall for wheelchair users was opened by the regional governor Sergei Morozov. He arrived with almost a two-hour delay, and all this time the disabled was waiting for him, because he did not want to entrust the opening of the hall to some of the deputies. He used this event for election campaigning, attributing the merit of the opening of the ruling party, its regional leadership and expressed the hope that the audience now knows who should vote on September 8 in the elections to the regional legislative assembly.