Accessibility and Language Assistance at the Museum | AMNH (2024)

81st Street/Rose Center for Earth and Space:Enter the Rose Center at 81st Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Coat check is temporarily unavailable. Accessible by wheelchair.

Columbus Avenue/Gilder Center: Enter the Gilder Center between 77th Street and 81st Street on Columbus Avenue. Accessible by wheelchair.

ForAccess-A-Ride serviceandGPS devicesuse the following address:

56 West 81st Street, New York, NY 10024

*Please note: The 81st Street/Museum of Natural History (B and C trains) subway station and subway entrance to the Museum are not wheelchair accessible. The closest accessible subway station is the 72nd Street station (1, 2, and 3 trains), with a connection on the northbound M7 on Amsterdam Avenue.

415 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10024 for the entrance at Columbus Ave./Gilder Center.

*Please note there is no driveway at the Gilder Center entrance.

Lower level:

• Near the subway entrance

Floor 1:

• Milstein Hall of Ocean Life (located on hall's lower level, access via elevator on mezzanine level)
• Rose Center for Earth and Space
• Near Futter Gallery (family and gender-neutral restroom)
• Gilder Center(women's, men's and a family and gender-neutral restroom)

Floor 2:

• Gilder Center(women's, men's and a family and gender-neutral restroom)

Floor 3:

• Gilder Center(women's, men's and a family and gender-neutral restroom)

Floor 4:

• Wallach Orientation Center
• Gilder Center(women's, men's and a family and gender-neutral restroom)

Lactation Rooms:

• Lower Level, in the Hall of the Universe
• Floor 3 - Gilder Center

Companion Care Room:

• Floor 1- Gilder Center

Non-motorized wheelchairs are available for visitors to use at no cost, on a first-come, first-served basis. Wheelchairs undergo enhanced cleaning procedures as part of the Museum'shealth and safetymeasures.

You can find them in four places:

1. At the Membership Desk directly inside the 81st Street/Rose Center entrance
2. At the main entrance on Central Park West (upstairs)
3. In the parking garage
4. At the 79th Street Membership Entrance
5. At the Gilder Center Entrance

Visitors borrowing a wheelchair must present a photo ID and provide a telephone number.

Wayfinding

Museum Mapsareavailable for downloadin the following languages:

• Arabic
• French
• German
• Italian
• Korean
• Japanese
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese
• Spanish
• Urdu

Download theMuseum’sExplorer app*in the following languages:

• Spanish
• French
• Portuguese

*Explorer is automatically set to the language of your device

Hayden Planetarium:Worlds Beyond Earth

Translation Devicesare available to borrow at the entrance to the show in the following languages:

• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Simplified Chinese
• Spanish
• Portuguese

*Please see a representative at the entrance to the show.

Closed Captioning GlassesandLarge Print Scriptsare available in the following languages:

• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Spanish

*For availability please email[emailprotected]one day before your visit.

Hayden Big Bang Theater:

Visitors can access audio translations and captioning for the Big Bang Theater in the following languages:

• English
• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Chinese
• Japanese

Visitors can scan the QR code at the entrance to the show to use their own personal device or borrow a device at the entrance to the theater.

Gilder Center: Invisible Worlds

Invisible Worlds intro gallery:

Visitors can access captioning translations for the Invisible Worlds intro gallery in the following languages:

• English
• Spanish US
• Arabic
• French
• German
• Japanese
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Korean
• Urdu
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese

Visitors can scan the QR code at the entrance to the show to use their own personal device.

Invisible Worlds immersive experience:

Visitors can access captioning and voiceover audio for the Invisible Worlds immersive experience in the following languages:

• English
• French
• Spanish
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Chinese

Captioning only is available in the following languages:

• German

Visitors can scan the QR code at the entrance to the exhibition, or scan the QR codes throughout the exhibition. Visitors must be on the Museum Wi-Fi to access captioning or audio on their own device.

Museum Highlights Tours

Tours are available in the following languages:

*Times and Languages vary. Pleasevisit our tour pagefor schedules or more information

• French
• Italian
• Hebrew
• Portuguese
• Simplified Chinese
• Spanish

Captioning and Listening Devices

Transcriptsfor Invisible Worlds at the Gilder Center, the Space Show and the Big Bang presentation in the Hayden Planetarium, and for LeFrak Theater films are available as downloadable PDFs.

Invisible Worlds

Giant Screen Film

Space Show

It is suggested that visitors bring their own headphones or neck loops to use with assisted listening devices.

Captioning Glasses are available at Invisible Worlds and the Hayden Planetarium. Email[emailprotected]24-hrs before your visit to confirm availability. For Invisible Worlds, speak with a representative at the entrance to the show.

Invisible Worlds has a hearing loop and is T-coil Compatible.

Induction loop hearing systemsare available upon request in the following locations:

• Special Exhibition Gallery 3
• Special Exhibition Gallery 4 (The LeFrak Family Gallery)

Infrared assistive listening devices(headsets and/or neck loops) are available upon request in the following locations:

• Special Exhibition Gallery 3
• Special Exhibition Gallery 4 (The LeFrak Family Gallery)

Sign Language Tours

To request ASL interpretation for a program or an interpreted guided tour, please contact[emailprotected]with 2 weeks notice.

Audio Description

Audio Description is available for our Invisible Worlds Experience and at the Hayden Planetarium. At the Hayden Planetarium please ask a representative at the show for an audio description device. For the Invisible Worlds Experience there is a QR code available to scan for Assistive Listening and Audio Description at the entrance to the exhibit and to the theater. A representative can guide you to the QR code if you would like to use your own device, or can give you a device to borrow through the theater.

Science Sense Tours Are Back!

To request a tour for visitors who are blind or partially sighted,please contact[emailprotected]with 2 weeks notice. Specially trained Museum tour guides highlight specific themes and exhibits, engaging participants through extensive verbal descriptions and touchable objects.

Tactile Objects on Display

Several of the Museum's permanent halls and special exhibitions feature touchable objects on exhibit.This list is not intended to define the objects, but to lead users to their locations. This list has been created for a sighted person to assist visitors who are blind or have low vision.

Objects in each hall are listed in alphabetical order.Please note:Objects may be off display for repair, or not accessible due to special events.

Download a PDF or view the list below:

Lower Level

Cullman Hall of the Universe

• Willamette Meteorite (real)

Floor 1

Ross Hall of Meteorites: All touchable objects in this hall are real meteorite fragments.

• Ahnighito (Cape York) - AMNH 867
• Canyon Diablo - AMNH 2235
• Canyon Diablo - AMNH 5030
• Dog (Cape York) - AMNH 869
• Estacado - AMNH 660
• Gibeon - AMNH 285
• Gibeon (Mass) - AMNH 3752
• Guffey (Mass) - AMNH 213
• Woman (Cape York) - AMNH 868

Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth

• 168 Specimens on display, most of which are touchable and real. This includes a banded iron formation, petrified wood, sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks.
• Bronze Planet Earth model

Hall of Biodiversity

• Chloroplast (model)
• Cyanobacteria (model)
• Diatom (model)
• Earthworm (model)
• Frog head (model)
• Front leg of a honeybee (model)
• Fungi decomposing a leaf (model)
• Nematode head (model)
• Roots (model)

Lincoln Ellsworth Corridor (on the first floor between the Grand Gallery and Warburg Hall of New York State Environment)

• Bust of Lincoln Ellsworth

Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals

• Almandine
• Almandine in Amphibolite
• Brazil Topaz
• Bumpus Beryls - four specimens
• Butterfly wings (model)
• Crystal Structure (models)
• Garnite Slab
• Human hands (model)
• Labrodorite
• Microcline var. Amazonite
• Obsidian
• Orbicular Granite
• Petrified Wood - Metasequoia Glyptostroboides
• Pinwheel blades (model)
• Plagioclase Feldspar
• Potassium Feldspar
• Quartz var. agate
• Quartz var. smoky
• Spinel
• Topaz

Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life

Entrance to this hall is on the 1st Floor, but all the tactile objects are found on the lower level. Please use stairs or elevator to reach the lower level.

• Common Loon webbed foot (bronze model)
• Coral polyps (bronze model)
• Dolphin flipper skeleton (bronze model)
• Oyster shell with pearl (bronze model)
• Squid tentacle (bronze model)
• Turtle Shell (bronze model)
• Walrus tusk (model)

Rose Center for Earth and Space, exit of Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway:

• Bronze Moon

Spitzer Hall of Human Origins

• Australopithecus africanusupper jaw and teeth (cast)
• Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) limb (cast)
• Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) foot (cast)
• Family Tree - 16 Hominidae skull casts (not all are in reach)
• Goliath frog (Conraua goliath) limb (cast)
• Hammerheaded fruit bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus) limb (cast)
• Harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) limb (cast)
• hom*o habilisfoot (cast)
• Human (hom*o sapiens) foot (cast)
• Human (hom*o sapiens) limb (2) (cast)
• Human(hom*o sapiens) left hand (cast)
• Methanococcus jannaschii, Archaea (model)
• Neanderthal (hom*o neanderthalensis) foot (cast)
• Notharctus tenebrosusgrasping hand on deck (cast)
• Nuclear DNA and Cell (parts of cell are indistinguishable by touch) (model)
• Paranthropus boiseiupper jaw and teeth (cast)
• Paranthropus robustusskullcap (cast)
• Plesiadapis cookeijaw/teeth on deck (cast)
• Spider monkey hand and tail grasping branch (model)
• Streptococcus agalactiaebacteria (model)

Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall

• Theodore Roosevelt sculpture

Floor 2

Akeley Hall of African Mammals

• Ivory elephant tusks (real)

Stout Hall of Asian Peoples

• Code of Hammurabi (cast)
• Wood carving of the God Vishnu's world dance (real)
• Wood carving of Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu, in cosmic dance (real)

Hall of Mexico and Central America

• Colossal Olmec Head (plaster replica)
• Replicas of Stela E and Stela F monuments

Hall of South American Peoples

• Giant tree with plank buttresses spotted with fungi (model)

Scales of the Universe

Models:

• Blue Supergiant Star Rigel
• Earth
• Globular Star Cluster
• Hayden Sphere
• Human brain
• Hydrogen atom
• Kuiper belt of comets
• Local group of galaxies
• Meteor crater
• Milky Way Galaxy
• Oort cloud of comets
• Raindrop
• Red blood cell
• Rhinovirus
• Saturn's moon Janus
• Sun
• Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies

Floor 3

Hall of Primates

• Bust of "The Old Man of Mikeno"

Floor 4

Breezeway between the Halls of Vertebrate Origins and Saurischian Dinosaurs

• Grasping hand (plastic model)

Hall of Vertebrate Origins

• Amniotic egg (plastic model)
• Antorbital openings in the head (plastic model)
• Great white shark tooth (real)
• Jaws (plastic model)
• Palatal openings in the mouth (plastic model)
• Plesiosaur vertebra (real)
• Teleost fish with enameled scales (real)
• Tetrapod (four limbs) (plastic model)

Milstein Hall of Advanced Mammals

• Amphicyon footprint (cast)
• Elephant tooth comparison display; modern elephant, mammoth and mastodon (real)
• Eyesockets near front of skull (model)
• Horse tooth comparison display - Equus, Mesohippus,Merychippus, and Hydracotherium (real)
• Stirrup-shaped stapes (model)
• Ungulates hoof (model)

Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs

• Ankylosaur armor plate (real)
• Backward pointing pubis bone (model)
• Dinosaur egg (real)
• Inset rows of teeth (model)
• Pachycephalosaurus wyomingenisskull (real)
• Stegosaurus stenopsdorsal plate (real)

Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs

• Deinonychus antirrhopusclaw (cast)
• JuvenileApatosaurus excelsushumerus (real)
• Three-fingered hand (model)
• Three-toed foot (model)
• Coelurosaur Long Arm (model)

Wallace Wing of Mammals and Their Extinct Relatives:

• Amniotic egg (plastic model)
• Gomphotherium productumhumerus (real)
• Placenta (plastic model)
• Synapsid opening (plastic model)
• Three middle ear bones (plastic model)

Exhibition Halls with No Touchable Objects on Display

Floor 1

• Felix Warburg Hall of New York State Environment
• Hall of North American Forests
• Northwest Coast Hall
• Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals

Floor 2

• Hall of Birds of the World
• Hall of African Peoples
• Hall of Asian Mammals
• Akeley Hall of African Mammals

Floor 3

• Leonard C. Sanford Hall of North American Birds
• Hall of New York State Mammals
• Hall of New York City Birds
• Hall of Reptiles and Amphibians

Visiting the Museum

Social Story

A social story is available to help visitors on the autism spectrum or sensory difficulties prepare for their visit:

If you’re not feeling well, please reschedule your visit to another day (visitamnh.org/health-safetyfor more information about health and safety during COVID-19. ).

Discovery Squad Tours are Back!

The Discovery Squad is a unique tour program designed for families affected by autism spectrum disorders.The program was developed in collaboration with the Seaver Autism Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

On select Sunday mornings, families can attend a 40-minute tour led by specially trained tour guides, then spend some time exploring activities related to the Museum halls, before the Museum opens to the public. Families are invited to stay after the tour and enjoy the Museum when it opens to the public at 10 am.

Tours are open to 5–14-year-olds with autism spectrum disorders. Each child must be accompanied by an adult.

Children ages 5–9 will discover the dioramas in the Jill and Lewis Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals, which offers a snapshot of the plants and animals native to North America. They will then plunge into the ocean to explore the dioramas in theMilstein Hall of Ocean Life. Children ages 10–14 will join our guides on a paleontology adventure through the Fossil Halls.

Time: 9 am–10 am

Tickets: Free

Upcoming Tours

Sunday, June 16

Sunday, July 21

Sunday, August 18

Space is limited and advance registration is required. Walk-ins will not be accepted. Programs may be subject to change. To register for a Discovery Squad tour, please call Central Reservations at 212-769-5200, Monday–Friday, 9 am–5 pm.

R. Mickens/© AMNH