Accessibility & Language Assistance at the Museum
Please visit the Health and Safety page to see updated visitor requirements. If you require any accommodations, please contact [email protected] before your visit to discuss your needs.
Caregivers accompanying visitors with disabilities receive complimentary Museum admission. To make your timed-ticket reservation:
- Go to the ticketing reservation page
- Check the box next to the statement that reads: "Passholders or IDNYC and Corporate Members - CityPASS, NYPass, Go City, Sightseeing Pass, Tiqets, Expedia, Get Your Guide, Viator, Library Pass, Culture Pass."
- Then select the number of tickets and continue to select a date and time of entry.
- You will receive a confirmation email that you can print at home and bring with you, or show on a mobile device when you arrive at the Museum.
All of the Museum's exhibitions are accessible by wheelchair, and all public floors of the Museum can be reached by elevator. Public elevators equipped with Braille signage and auditory signals are located near the Central Park West and 77th Street entrance, the Rose Center entrance, and the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation entrance.
Service animals are welcome to visit the Museum.
Strollers are welcome throughout the Museum.
- The recommended Museum entrance for strollers is 81st Street/Rose Center for Earth and Space.
- Double strollers are not typically permitted in the special exhibition galleries due to space constraints. Where strollers are not permitted, stroller parking is provided.
Sensory bags containing noise-reducing headphones and fidget tools are available for check-out at information desks.
Visitors can use the Museum’s free Explorer app to find routes that include elevators. Choose the accessible route and receive turn-by-turn directions.
Accessibility / Language Assistance
If you have any questions about accessibility or language assistance, including Limited English Proficiency (“LEP”), at the Museum or would like to request an accommodation, please contact us at [email protected] or 212-769-5250.
To access the Museum’s Spanish translation hotline, please call: 212-769-5100 and select option #2. Select option #5 for accessibility voicemail.
If the format of any material on the Museum’s website interferes with your ability to access that material, please contact us for assistance and indicate the nature of your accessibility request, the Internet address of the information you are trying to access, and your preferred format for an alternative means by which you may want to receive the information—i.e., an electronic format like ASCII, standard or large print—along with your contact information.
Please click on the tabs below to obtain details about Museum facilities, resources, tours, and programs.
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.
For Access-A-Ride service and GPS devices use 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's health and safety measures.
You can find them in five 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
- At the 79th Street Membership Entrance
- At the Gilder Center Entrance
Visitors borrowing a wheelchair must present a photo ID and provide a telephone number.
Wayfinding
Museum Maps are available for download in the following languages:
- Arabic
- French
- German
- Italian
- Korean
- Japanese
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Simplified Chinese
- Spanish
- Urdu
Download the Museum’s Explorer app* in the following languages:
- Spanish
- French
- Portuguese
*Explorer is automatically set to the language of your device
Hayden Planetarium: Worlds Beyond Earth
Translation Devices are 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 Glasses and Large Print Scripts are available in the following languages:
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Portuguese
- Spanish
*For availability please email [email protected] 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. Please visit our tour page for schedules or more information
- French
- Italian
- Hebrew
- Portuguese
- Simplified Chinese
- Spanish
Captioning and Listening Devices
Transcripts for 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 [email protected] 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 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:
- 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
Floor 2
Akeley Hall of African Mammals
- Ivory elephant tusks (real)
- 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)
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
- Bust of "The Old Man of Mikeno"
Floor 4
Breezeway between the Halls of Vertebrate Origins and Saurischian Dinosaurs
- Grasping hand (plastic model)
- 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 wyomingenis skull (real)
- Stegosaurus stenops dorsal plate (real)
- Deinonychus antirrhopus claw (cast)
- Juvenile Apatosaurus excelsus humerus (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 productum humerus (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 (visit amnh.org/health-safety for 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 the Milstein 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, October 20
- Sunday, November 17
- Sunday, December 15
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.
Website Accessibility
The American Museum of Natural History is 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.
The Museum’s website can be translated into over 100 languages using Google Translate. Visit translate.google.com, enter amnh.org in the “Direct Language” translate field and follow the Google Translate link to the Museum’s website to select your preferred language.
Our Commitment to Accessibility
The Museum is guided by the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Consistent with these federal laws and other requirements, it is the policy of the Museum to provide reasonable accommodation with respect to admission or access to Museum facilities, programs, or activities, unless such an accommodation would cause undue hardship.
The Museum has developed Grievance Procedures for the prompt and equitable resolution of complaints related to disability and access, including but not limited to complaints made by individuals with limited English proficiency. Review the Grievance Procedures and other related information.
Translations
This page was translated into Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian, and Korean on June 10, 2021. Information on this page has been updated since that date. For the most up-to-date information, view this page translated by Google to your language.
Español
中国人
русский
한국인
Support for accessibility initiatives at the American Museum of Natural History has been provided by the Filomen M. D’Agostino Foundation.