Sensory rooms in Scottish stadiums

[Pingu1884]

I started going to the football at a young age with my Dad. Despite him being a Motherwell fan, he encouraged me to support my local team, St. Johnstone, and took me to my first game – a one nil defeat at home to Dundee.

 

Despite this early setback, I was hooked and for the following few years we had season tickets to McDairmid Park and attended all of St. Johnstone’s home games.

25ish years later, my own son has been asking me to take him to a football game. My son, Lewis, is 8 years old is autistic. He loves to watch games on the TV with me but really wants to see it live and in person. Unfortunately, his condition means that he could not in any way cope at a game. Too much noise, too many people, too much unpredictability are among the issues he would face trying to attend a match. 

I did a bit of research and learned about The Shippey Campaign that advocated for and have helped clubs across England to install sensory rooms at stadiums across the country to allow those with sensory difficulties to attend matches and support their team in an environment that takes their needs into consideration. 

 

In Scotland, to my knowledge only Celtic, Rangers, Greenock Morton and Airdrieonians offer sensory rooms at the ground to allow those with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other sensory conditions to attend matches safely and without fear of sensory overload.

 

Despite the SFA and most clubs having statements about how accepting they are of people with disabilities, for the most part this does not extend to those with sensory difficulties. There would be absolute uproar if any stadium in this country didn’t offer facilities for those in wheelchairs to attend matches but very little seems to be in place for those with additional sensory needs. 

I rang Hampden Park, Scotland’s national stadium, to enquire about a sensory room for the upcoming internationals and was told that they have nothing of the sort available. 

As a St. Johnstone fan, I rang McDairmid Park and asked about facilities there. They offer a loan of sensory bags with fidget toys, colouring books, bubbles and ear plugs amongst other things (that no parent of a neurodivergent child would leave the house without) but no sensory rooms.

 

Approximately 1 in 7 people in the UK can be classed as neurodivergent (meaning their brain functions, learns and processes information differently), so in all likelihood, each person reading this knows somebody who falls into this category.   

I just want to be able to take my son to football games the same as thousands of other Dads do every week. 

 

I am asking if you would be willing to sign the attached petition to try and raise awareness whilst persuading the SFA and clubs in Scotland to provide spaces so those with sensory difficulties can attend matches. 

 

Thank you. 

 

https://chng.it/wGstKftr

[HoBNob]

Interesting Pingu, when Brentford opened up there new stadium they opened up a sensory room, truth be told it's something I'd never considered. 

 

Hope the petition goes well. Good luck  

[parsforlife]

Forgive my ignorance, what facilities would you think would provided that would help?

You mention a sensory room,  but I do other things needed provided around that?  Is it expected you would view the game from that room or would you have a dedicated area of a stand with access to that room should any individuals require it?  Do other factors need built in regarding entry and exit for example?

[Otis Blue]

I'm in Pingu, good luck with this.

[HoBNob]

36 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

Forgive my ignorance, what facilities would you think would provided that would help?

You mention a sensory room,  but I do other things needed provided around that?  Is it expected you would view the game from that room or would you have a dedicated area of a stand with access to that room should any individuals require it?  Do other factors need built in regarding entry and exit for example?

At Brentford it's a room with a view of the pitch, but with thick glass so you can't hear the crowd. 

 

Unsure as to capacity but it needs pre-booked. 

For most clubs it would require current hospitality space to be used I'd imagine which will be the major stumbling block. 

At Dunfermline I wonder if they could use the gym during match days? Unsure on the legality of it. 

[parsforlife]

1 minute ago, Grant228 said:

At Brentford it's a room with a view of the pitch, but with thick glass so you can't hear the crowd. 

 

Unsure as to capacity but it needs pre-booked. 

For most clubs it would require current hospitality space to be used I'd imagine which will be the major stumbling block. 

At Dunfermline I wonder if they could use the gym during match days? Unsure on the legality of it. 

Yes, I think that’s the would be the big stumbling block, rooms with views of the pitch are huge earners for clubs, to lose a hospitality space would be a big impact, that’s not to say cash should be prioritised over inclusivity but if we know Scottish football most things that don’t represent immediate short term income are usually ignored.

For us, The gym is likely to become a dead space once we finally get round to building the training ground.  I think that’s a potential area, it was built with pitch facing windows but that was more aimed at providing media space I think, given we see them less than once a season on average the space could be better used, also has a spacious separate entrance and an option to provide parking. 

I’d like to think we are are a fairly progressive club in terms of inclusiveness but this along with a few others are areas we fall well short. 

[Skyline Drifter]

I'm just not sure how remotely practical this is. I have an autistic son who doesnt like noise so I do understand the issue although in my case that son hates sport anyway so its not really an issue for us, the other son who loves football has no issues with noise. 

I can see merit in the idea that new builds should be required to make provision but I dont see how you can possibly force existing stadia to provide something they simply dont have. Palmerston for example has nowhere in the entire ground with a windowed view of the pitch. To provide sometbing suitable you'd be requiring a new build area on the terrace or something. Most lower league grounds will be the same, never mind higher league ones (there are no windowed viewing areas at St Johnstone are there?).

You'd be imposing an enormous, and likely impractical, cost on cash strapped clubs for something rarely utilised. I know Airdrie seldom open their sensory room and often use it for other things as there is no demand for it. You'd require enormous grant funding for something mandatory and thers are still probably practical considerations in a lot of cases even if money was no object.

I wish you luck but I doubt it would ever be mandated on clubs. I do think the SFA should probably be providing at least some space in the National Stadium to address this though. Its the flagship and it has plenty of windowed viewing in the South Stand. 

[Reggie Perrin]

Petition signed.

Good luck.

[cb_diamond]

Airdrie's sensory room is no more unfortunately. Depending on who you listen to it's for all sorts of reasons ranging from lack of use to our chairman wanting to store stuff in it.

[CallumPar]

Great initiative. Signed this now.

[Guest]

This is Celtic’s Sensory Room.

[Guest Wind Chime Jimmy]

Superb initiative 

[CapitalDiamond]

Signed. My 4 year old boy is also Autistic but as has been mentioned above, Airdrie’s sensory room was discontinued which was massively disappointing having been the first club in Scotland to have one.

Hopefully it may return one day. From what I understand, it was as much about a supportive community for families as it was about the football. Some kids weren’t necessarily bothered about the game but there was sensory equipment which they could use.