Whether you travel via broomstick or turn into a werewolf under the moonlight, Halloween is a celebration of difference.
This year, we have a few suggestions for how to make the holiday even warmer and more welcoming amid the chills and thrills.
Adaptive Costumes
When Target unveiled its wheelchair-friendly line of adaptive Halloween costumes in 2019, it had only two options — a princess and a pirate, each with openings in the back for easy dressing and wheelchair covers resembling a carriage and a ship, respectively.
This year’s line features a larger range of options, including a firefighter uniform that glows in the dark for enhanced safety on Halloween night, as well as a shark hood with an ocean-blue blanket to help kids keep warm in the chilly fall weather.
The shark and unicorn jumpsuits are specially designed for sensory needs, with flat seams to withstand high-level activity without irritating the skin. The costume is also fitted with discreet functional openings that allow access to feeding tubes and other medical devices. These openings are sewn into a pocket or behind a fabric flap to make the openings hidden but accessible. For example, the unicorn costume has a kangaroo pouch pocket with hidden openings, and the shark costume has a side zipper with a top snap that provides access to the body and any necessary devices.
Accessible Events
As the nation’s longest running continually-operated haunted house, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis teamed up with mobility manufacturer BraunAbility to install an ADA-compliant ramp with railings to make Bewitched BOOseum’s vortex tunnel more accessible. (The haunted house is open now through October 31.)
Meanwhile, Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation’s annual Sensory Friendly Trick-or-Treat Trail allows families to enjoy the spirit of the season along River Heritage Park’s fully accessible trails. Volunteers in family-friendly costumes will greet trailgoers with treats, and their path will be clear of loud music, spooky decorations or frightening masks, making it a pleasant, comfortable experience for those with sensory sensitivity. (This event will take place on Saturday, October 25 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, visit this page.)
The Indianapolis Zoo also offers its annual ZooBoo event. With ramps, automatic doors, and mobility scooters available to rent, the Zoo is fully ADA-accessible, and on October 29, it will be sensory-friendly with reduced noise and light as well as free sensory bags containing noise-canceling headphones, strobe reduction sunglasses, fidget toys and other tools to lessen sensory overload. (These bags are also available daily, in addition to the Zoo’s quiet rooms.)
During ZooBoo, which runs now through November 2, families can enjoy a wide range of seasonal activities that include: trick-or-treating at stations across the Zoo; riding the “Roller Ghoster;” learning how to mix magical potions; watching elephants stomp, smash and snack on giant pumpkins; and so much more!
Horror Movie Marathon
One of the best ways of pregaming Halloween is watching scary movies. This year, there’s a way you can do that and celebrate the disability community at the same time.
This year’s theme for the 12th annual Easterseals Disability Film Challenge was “Thriller and Suspense.” (To be eligible for the challenge, a film’s cast and crew must consist of volunteers, with at least one member having a physical or cognitive disability.)
If you missed the screening of this year’s short film finalists at the Heartland Film Festival, you can watch them all on the competition’s YouTube channel. These films are not only made by people with disabilities, but they explore disability in inventive ways fit for this season. For example, Best Film and Best Director winner Everhand follows an amputee farmer as he and his wife are terrorized by a ghoulish sales rep for a mechanical arm.
The Best Actor-winning film, Day 21, revolves around the unique concept of an apocalyptic event whose only survivors are people with Down Syndrome. (The star of the film, Dashiell Meier, actually has Down Syndrome, and he also co-wrote and directed it.)
In the Best Writer-winning film, We’ll Meet Again, co-writer Danny Kurtzman also stars as a man with mobility challenges who meets a mysterious woman over the phone and seems to be falling in love until matters take a sinister turn.
From costumes to trick-or-treating to spooky cinema, the aforementioned options will give people of all ages and backgrounds plenty to enjoy this Halloween season.