Neurodivergent volunteer usher

Anthony, who is autistic and a theatre fan, volunteered as an usher and ticket scanner at the Sensory-Inclusive performance of Disney’s The Little Mermaid at The 5th Avenue Theatre in October 2023. Anthony’s favorite part of attending live theatre is feeling included and getting to participate with the rest of the community.

Help bring the joy of live theatre to neurodivergent community members.

The reality is it is expensive to create a Sensory Guide, a Social Narrative, and to produce a Sensory-Friendly performance. Expertise and training are required, in order to do it properly. Many theatres, especially small community theatres in small towns, simply do not have these funds. Many are still struggling to survive after 2020. Even if they had some extra funds, they do not always know how to get started to add sensory accessibility properly.

That’s where we come in. We argue it is even more important for these small community theatres to offer this accessibility and inclusion, so our goal is to subsidize up to 100% of the cost. We want EVERY theatre, no matter how small, to have sensory accessibility for our neurodivergent community members.

Without your donations, this simply cannot happen. We want to remove the cost barrier for these theatres, and we want to connect these theatres with the right resources to make this happen. We also want to help them get the word out to their community members about this new inclusion and accessibility.

Thank you for helping bring the joy of live theatre to our neurodivergent community members. A donation in any amount is helpful and appreciated!

Neurodiversity Allies is a Washington nonprofit corporation and registered charity with the Secretary of State of Washington and is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. Shunpike is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that provides independent arts groups in Washington State with the services, resources, and opportunities they need to forge their own paths to sustainable success. All donations to Neurodiversity Allies are processed by Shunpike and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Shunpike’s EIN is 91-2138554.