Middlesex Cricket are delighted to announce an exciting new partnership with tech start-up company, picturepath, developers of an award winning visual timeline app.
Middlesex are the first First-Class county to launch in partnership with picturepath – an app designed to help people with autism and anxiety plan and visualise their daily activities. As part of the app, the platform features visitor guides for their venue partners, allowing sports clubs to better support fans with additional needs during match visits.
The app’s software enables fans who would typically struggle in heightened sensory environments, such as sports stadia, to reduce sensory stress by seeing, planning and preparing for each stage of their matchday visit. Large crowds, loud cheering, sights and sounds typical of a matchday experience can cause significant anxiety for fans with additional needs, particularly those with autism.
The app uses images from each specific venue including parking and transport links, entrances, views from seats, toilets, catering and navigating back home, meaning fans can use Picturepath to create visual timelines to plan their matchday experience to manage expectations and reduce anxiety.
On announcing the partnership with picturepath, Lorraine Poole, Middlesex Cricket’s Director of Operations, said:
“We are really pleased to be launching this service for our fans and members who will be attending our out-ground matches at both Radlett Cricket Club and Merchant Taylors’ School and have been hugely impressed with everything the picturepath app delivers.
“With Middlesex Cricket constantly looking to improve access and inclusivity for all our spectators, picturepath allows us to offer all fans the opportunity to enjoy a fair and equal matchday experience.
Speaking of the collaboration, picturepath’s founder, Richard Nurse said:
"We're delighted that visitors to Radlett and Merchant Taylors' School will be able to plan their days using picturepath’s visual guides.
“I have a son who's mad about cricket, so I know how enjoyable it can be to bring him to watch the game, but also how unsettling it can be for fans who may be autistic or anxious.
“Middlesex are the first County side to have picturepath visual guides go live and it's fabulous that they're committed to making visits less stressful, more inclusive, and improve the experience for all cricket lovers."
For more information on picturepath, please visit www.mypicturepath.com
The visual guides for Middlesex’s matches at Radlett will be uploaded in the very near future, when fans will be able to access all the information they’ll need ahead of visiting the ground for our forthcoming Vitality Blast matches.
The picturepath mobile app is available to download for free on Apple and Google Play stores.
