 Case Study - National Autistic Society
 Overview: In early 2010, the National Autistic Society, (NAS) commissioned us to produce two videos for their online Managing Money Project. The aim of the project was to teach people with autism to become more financially independent and the NAS had correctly identified video as an engaging and memorable medium for two of their modules.
The Treatment and Production: The NAS wanted two training videos: one demonstrating how to stay safe at a cash machine and the other showing the typical interactions and facilities one might experience using a high street bank.
Video 1 - Using a local bank
The first obstacle to overcome was finding a suitable location in which to film. The limited budget meant we couldn’t build our own set and it was highly unlikely a high street bank would allow us access to one of their branches as this would mean either closing for business on a weekday or opening up on a weekend.
“It occurred to me that some of the banks might have staff training facilities where they carry out role-playing exercises and so on. I put some calls in and one came back offering us the perfect venue – a model branch, kitted out exactly like an ordinary bank. Even a specialist locations company couldn’t find anything close!”
Neil Garrett, Producer/Director
With the location sorted, production could begin in earnest. The purpose of the video was to show the viewers, many of who may never have been in a bank before, the range of interactions they might experience so the main section of the video followed a fictional customer as he went through the process of opening a new account. The customer and members of the bank’s staff were played by professional actors. Extras were played by NAS members of staff and stakeholders.
Video 2 - Using a Cash Machine (ATM)
The NAS videos are a prime example of how films should be geared specifically for their audience. People with autism can have trouble processing lots of different information at the same time and so the videos were an exercise in restraint. The cameras were deliberately kept quite static, the use of on-screen text was restricted to the end recap. It was even determined that incidental music would be undesirable.
Delivery: The videos were presented online in the NAS’s Managing Money micro-site. To make them DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) Compliant, we provided a customized video player which supports subtitles. The player also allows ‘jump to’ chaptering, which is a great educational tool.
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