Accessibility

Two rows of graphic images, each comprised of six icons that indicate the presence of accessible resources.

The American Museum of Natural History is committed to ensuring that its facilities, exhibitions, and services are accessible to all individuals, including those with disabilities.

All of the Museum's exhibitions are accessible by wheelchair, and all public floors of the Museum can be reached by elevator. Public elevators near the Central Park West and 77th Street entrances and those in the Rose Center are equipped with Braille signage and give auditory signals.
All theaters include wheelchair locations and companion seats. The LeFrak Theater also is equipped with chairs that have swing-out armrests for those wishing to sit in a theater seat.
All food service areas are accessible by wheelchair, with no steps, turnstiles, or other potential obstructions.
Service animals are welcome to visit the Museum. Please note:To protect our live butterflies, visitors with service animals must answer a few simple questions before entry to the Butterfly Conservatory is permitted.

The Museum is a top field trip destination in New York City and hosts school field trips for students with disabilities. For more information, email fieldtrips@amnh.org.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about accessibility at the Museum or would like to request an accommodation, please contact us at accessibility@amnh.org or 212-769-5250. In addition, if the format of any material on the Museum’s website interferes with your ability to access that material, please contact us for assistance.

In order for us to respond in a manner most helpful to you, please provide information about the best way to contact you.

Please click on the tabs below to obtain details about Museum facilities, resources, and programs.

ACCESSIBlLE ENTRANCES

81st Street/Rose Center for Earth and Space: Enter the Rose Center at 81st Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Coat check service available. Entrance for special events and programs if specified on ticket. Accessible by wheelchair.

81st Street/Parking Garage: Located at 56 West 81st Street, adjacent to the Rose Center entrance.

For Access-A-Ride service and GPS devices use the following address:

56 West 81st Street, New York, NY 10024

ADDITIONAL ENTRANCES AND EXITS

77th Street: During regular hours, exit on the first floor to 77th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Entrance for special events and education programs if specified on ticket. Accessible by wheelchair.

Central Park West (ground level): During regular hours, exit to Central Park West at 79th Street. Enter for special events and education programs if specified on ticket. Accessible by wheelchair.

*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.

ACCCESSIBLE RESTROOMS

WHEELCHAIR AVAILABILITY

Non-motorized wheelchairs are available for visitors to use at no cost, on a first-come, first-served basis.

You can find them in three places:

At the Membership Desk directly inside the 81st Street/Rose Center entrance
At the main entrance on Central Park West (upstairs)
In the parking garage

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

FOR VISITORS WHO ARE DEAF/HARD OF HEARING

CAPTIONING AND LISTENING DEVICES

Rear Window Captioning (RWC) is available in the LeFrak Theater for most films. Please see the theater attendant for a panel.

Closed-captioning glasses are available for the Hayden Planetarium Dark Universe Space Show and Field Trip to the Moon Space Show. Please email accessibility@amnh.org at least one day in advance to confirm availability.

Transcripts for the Space Show and the Big Bang presentation in the Hayden Planetarium, and for LeFrak Theater films are available as downloadable PDFs (below).

Discovering the Universe Prelude Transcript

Dark Universe Pre Show Transcript

Dark Universe Space Show Transcript

Backyard Wilderness Transcript

Induction loop hearing systems are 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:

The Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak Theater
Kaufmann and Linder Theaters
Hayden Planetarium Space Theater
Special Exhibition Gallery 3
Special Exhibition Gallery 4 (The LeFrak Family Gallery)

SIGN LANGUAGE TOURS

Experience informative, entertaining, and inspiring presentations of permanent and special exhibitions for both deaf and hearing audiences with simultaneously signed and spoken tours.

Email accessibility@amnh.org or call 212-313-7565 at least 72 hours in advance. Registration required; unfortunately, no walk-ins are accepted. Please note: two weeks advance notice is required to request ASL interpretation on a date that is not scheduled below.

Free for Members or with Museum admission. Programs subject to change.

UPCOMING TOURS

Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth and Climate Change
Saturday, February 16, 2019 at 12:30pm
How do we know what we know about earth and climate change? Learn about earthquakes, volcanoes and what rocks can tell us about our environment and explore the new climate change exhibition.

Programs with sign language are intended primarily for the Deaf community. ASL students may attend, but we do not sign attendance sheets.

FOR VISITORS WHO ARE BLIND/PARTIALLY SIGHTED

SCIENCE SENSE TOURS

Visitors who are blind or partially sighted are invited to attend this program, held monthly in the halls of the American Museum of Natural History. Specially trained Museum tour guides highlight specific themes and exhibits, engaging participants through extensive verbal descriptions and touchable objects. Science Sense tours are available to individuals or to groups.

Email accessibility@amnh.org or call 212-313-7565 to register. Registration required; unfortunately, no walk-ins are accepted.

Free for Members or with Museum admission. Programs subject to change.

Please note: two weeks advance notice is required to request a Science Sense tour on a date that is not scheduled below.

UPCOMING TOURS

Spectacular Biodiversity

Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 10:30 am
Explore the amazing variety of life in the Hall of Biodiversity, highlighting our planet’s major habitats, critical resources, and the factors that threaten them.

Fossils
Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at 2:30pm
Through verbal descriptions and touchable objects, trace the giant “family tree” of life on Earth through the Museum’s amazing fossil collections, organized by a myriad of evolutionary relationships.

Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples
Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 10:30 am
Who is Margaret Mead and what is her connection to the hall of Pacific Peoples? Who are the Pacific Peoples? Discover dance masks from Papua New Guinea, shadow puppets from Java, ancestor figures from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and more in this magnificent hall dedicated to long-time museum anthropologist Margaret Mead.

TOUCHABLE EXHIBITS

This list of touchable objects in the permanent exhibition halls has been created for a sighted person to assist people who are blind or have low vision in locating these exhibits.

Note: The Discovery Room on the first floor has touchable exhibits specially geared toward children.

Objects in each hall are listed in alphabetical order. Objects may be off view for conservation or, in some cases, halls may be closed because of special events.

LOWER LEVEL

Cullman Hall of the Universe

Willamette Meteorite

FIRST FLOOR

Ross Hall of Meteorites

Ahnighito (Cape York meteorite)
Canyon Diablo (AMNH 5030)
Canyon Diablo (AMNH 2235)
Dog (Cape York meteorite)
Estacado
Gibeon (AMNH 285)
Gibeon (Mass)
Gibeon (Slab)
Guffey (Mass)
Guffey (Slab)
Woman (Cape York meteorite)

Lincoln Ellsworth Corridor (Opposite the Discovery Room)

Bust of Lincoln Ellsworth

Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth

There are more than 100 specimens on display, most of which are touchable. These includes a banded iron formation, petrified wood, and sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Bronze 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)
Giant clam shell (model)
Nematode head (model)
Roots (model)

Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life

Entrance to this hall is on the first floor but all the touchable objects are found on lower level. Please use stairs or elevator to reach the lower level.

Common Loon webbed foot (model)
Coral polyps (model)
Dolphin flipper skeleton (model)
Oyster shell with pearl (model)
Squid tentacle (model)
Walrus tusk (model)
Rose Center for Earth and Space

Near exit of Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway

Bronze Moon (model)

Spitzer Hall of Human Origins

Australopithecus africanus upper 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)
Homo habilis foot (cast)
Human (Homo sapiens) foot (cast)
Human (Homo sapiens) limb (2) (cast)
Human(Homo sapiens) left hand (cast)
Methanococcus jannaschii, Archaea (model)
Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) foot (cast)
Notharctus tenebrosus grasping hand on deck (cast)
Nuclear DNA and Cell (parts of cell are indistinguishable by touch) (model)
Paranthropus boisei upper jaw and teeth (cast)
Paranthropus robustus skullcap (cast)
Plesiadapis cookei jaw/teeth on deck (cast)
Spider monkey hand and tail grasping branch (model)
Streptococcus agalactiae bacteria (model)

Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall

Theodore Roosevelt sculpture

SECOND FLOOR

Akeley Hall of African Mammals

Ivory elephant tusks

Stout Hall of Asian Peoples

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

Hall of Mexico and Central America

Aztec-style depiction of a standing man
Kneeling figure from the Husatec region
Reclining figure with bird features
Replica of Tomb 104, Monte Albá
Replicas of Stela E and Stela F monuments

Hall of South American Peoples

Giant tree with plank buttresses spotted with fungi
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

THIRD FLOOR

Hall of Primates

Bust of gorilla (sculpture)

FOURTH FLOOR

Breezeway between the Halls of Vertebrate Origins and Saurischian Dinosaurs

Grasping hand (model)
Hole in the hip socket (model)

Hall of Vertebrate Origins

Amniotic egg (model)
Antorbital openings in the head (model)
Brain case and backbone (model)
Great white shark tooth
Jaws (model)
Palatal openings in the mouth (model)
Plesiosaur vertebra
Teleost fish with enameled scales
Tetrapod (four limbs) (model)

Milstein Hall of Advanced Mammals

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

Wallach Orientation Center

Braincase and backbone (model)
Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs
Ankylosaur armor plate
Backward pointing pubis bone (model)
Dinosaur egg
Inset rows of teeth (model)
Pachycephalosaurus wyomingenis skull
Stegosaurus stenops dorsal plate

Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs

Deinonychus antirrhopus claw (cast)
Juvenile Apatosaurus excelsus humerus
Sauropod tooth
Theropod tooth
Three-fingered hand (model)
Three-toed foot (model)
Tyrannosaurus rex lower jaw (cast)

Hall of Primitive Mammals

Amniotic egg (model)
Gomphotherium productum humerus
Placenta (model)
Synapsid opening (model)
Three middle ear bones (model)

EXHIBITION HALLS WITH NO TOUCHABLE OBJECTS ON DISPLAY

FIRST FLOOR

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

SECOND FLOOR

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

THIRD FLOOR

Hall of Plains Indians
Hall of Eastern Woodlands Indians
Sanford Hall of North American Birds
Hall of New York State Mammals
Hall of New York City Birds
Hall of Reptiles and Amphibians

FOR CHILDREN ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM

DISCOVERY SQUAD TOURS

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.

Call Central Reservations at 212-769-5200 (Monday–Friday, 9 am–5 pm) to register.

Registration required; unfortunately, no walk-ins are accepted.

Discovery Squad tours take place before the Museum is open and are free. Programs subject to change.

On select Saturday mornings from 9–10 am, families can attend a 40-minute tour led by specially trained tour guides, then spend some time exploring the Discovery Room 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 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 the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life.
Children ages 10–14 will join our guides on a paleontology adventure through the Fossil Halls.

UPCOMING TOURS

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Saturday, May 25 2019

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Saturday, July 14, 2019

Saturday, August 11, 2019

Saturday, September 8, 2019

Discovery Squad Tours

Volunteer guides children to investigate the vertebrae of dinosaur model.

Volunteer helps child use a brush to uncover "fossils" in a display that is a recreation of a fossil dig.

Adult guides the hand of a child to touch a model of a dinosaur as another child watches.

Website Accessibility

The American Museum of Natural History is also committed to making its website accessible to individuals with disabilities, consistent with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. For more information on the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines, please visit the Web Accessibility Initiative.