The Lower East Side Tenement Museum welcomes all visitors. We recognize the diverse needs of our audience. The following programs and services are provided to enable all visitors to explore the shared American experiences we interpret at the Tenement Museum.
UPCOMING ACCESS PROGRAMS
TENEMENT TOUCH TOURS
Created for those who are blind or with low vision, these tours provide handling objects and extensive descriptive narration. Contact us to arrange touch tours for parties of 5 or more.
Meet the Residents: Victoria Confino programs take place in an immersive, fully touchable recreated apartment. This program is available to the public weekends at 12, 1, 2, and 3 pm, as well as during New York City school and summer vacations. See the complete schedule on our tours page.
This video offers a short preview of our ASL tours.
VISITOR CENTER AND MUSEUM SHOP
The Delancey-Essex F/J/Z station has an escalator but no elevator. The nearest wheelchair accessible subway station is A, B, C, D, E, F, M to West 4th Street or 6 to Canal Street. The wheelchair accessible public entrance to 103 Orchard Street is on Delancey Street, between Orchard and Allen. Please ring the bell.
The ticketing kiosk is equipped with a t-coil compatible induction loop.
Universally-designed elevators and restrooms are located on the ground and basement levels.
The orientation film shown in the theater of our Visitor Center, An American Story, is equipped with an induction loop. Additionally, the main location for Tenement Talks is equipped with a t-coil compatible induction loop. FM assistive listening devices are available upon request for all Museum programming.
Our Accessible Learning Center, located just off the book shop, features a Talking Tactile Tablet to orient visitors to our historic tenement building at 97 Orchard through raised line drawings and verbal description.
TENEMENT TOUCH TOURS
Created for those who are blind or with low vision, these tours provide handling objects and extensive descriptive narration. Contact us to arrange touch tours for parties of 5 or more.
Meet the Residents: Victoria Confino programs take place in an immersive, fully touchable recreated apartment. This program is available to the public weekends at 12, 1, 2, and 3 pm, as well as during New York City school and summer vacations. See the complete schedule on our tours page.
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE TOURS
A deaf educator will lead tours, with no spoken English translation.
Sunday, January 8th at 4:45 PM
Sweatshop Workers: Pay a visit to the Levine family's garment workshop and the Rogarshevskys' Sabbath table at the turn of the 20th century, when the Lower East Side was the most densely populated place in the world. Explore how immigrants balanced work, family and religion at a time of great change.
This tour goes to the third floor: 38 steps up, 31 steps down.
Saturday, March 10th at 4:15 PM
Irish Outsiders: Experience the heart of the immigrant saga through the music of Irish America, then tour the restored home of the Moore family, Irish-Catholic immigrants coping with the death of a child in 1869. Compare the Moore's struggle to keep their family healthy with that of the Katz family, Russian-Jewish immigrants who left their 'mark' on our building in the 1930s.
This tour goes to the fourth floor: 61 steps up, 53 steps down.
Sunday, May 20th at 4:30 PM
Hard Times: Discover how immigrants survived economic depressions at 97 Orchard Street between 1863 and 1935. Visit the restored homes of the German-Jewish Gumpertz family, whose patriarch disappeared during the Panic of 1873, and the Italian-Catholic Baldizzi family, who lived through the Great Depression.
This tour goes to the second floor: 24 steps up, 23 steps down.
OPEN CAPTIONED TENEMENT TALKS *
Enjoy a talk with real time open captioning at our free evening series. The speakers' words will be projected on a large screen at the front of the room in real time via CART.
All Tenement Talks are held at the Museum's Visitors Center at 103 Orchard.
January 24 at 6:30 PM
Behind the Scenes: The LES and the Hebrew Technical Institute
Founded in 1883, the Hebrew Technical Institute offered education in the industrial arts to young Jewish boys living in NYC. Director of Curatorial Affairs & HTI Research Fellow, David Favaloro, will discuss the relationship between HTI and the immigrant experience on the LES.
February 7 at 6:30 PM
Behind the Scenes: A Biography of 103 Orchard Street
The curatorial staff shares the history of 103 Orchard Street, the new visitor center and museum shop, on the corner of Delancey. When was the building built and how has it been altered over time? Who lived and worked here? What stories have Museum researchers uncovered?
* Funded by the Theater Development Fund
VISITOR CENTER AND MUSEUM SHOP
The Delancey-Essex F/J/Z station has an escalator but no elevator. The nearest wheelchair accessible subway station is A, B, C, D, E, F, M to West 4th Street or 6 to Canal Street. The wheelchair accessible public entrance to 103 Orchard Street is on Delancey Street, between Orchard and Allen. Please ring the bell.The ticketing kiosk is equipped with a t-coil compatible induction loop.Universally-designed elevators and restrooms are located on the ground and basement levels.The orientation film shown in the theater of our Visitor Center, An American Story, is equipped with an induction loop. Additionally, the main location for Tenement Talks is equipped with a t-coil compatible induction loop. FM assistive listening devices are available upon request for all Museum programming. Our Accessible Learning Center, located just off the book shop, features a Talking Tactile Tablet to orient visitors to our historic tenement building at 97 Orchard through raised line drawings and verbal description.Questions: Call our Education Associate at 212-431-0233, x. 232 or e-mail slitvin@tenement.org.
FOR VISITORS WHO USE MOBILITY AIDS
Braille translations of primary source documents cited on Tour the Building tours are available with advanced request.
DEAF EDUCATOR: ALEXANDRIA WAILES
The Tenement Museum's deaf educator, Alexandria Wailes, leads quarterly ASL tours with no voice interpretation for the public. Check the Upcoming Access Events section of this page for public ASL tour dates.
Alexandria is also available to lead group tours with advanced notice. If you have a group of five or more individuals, schedule a group ASL tour by contacting our Visitor Services Coordinator.
The Museum's landmark tenement is not currently wheelchair accessible.
Starting in 2012, the Museum will offer a new exhibit, "Shop Life", which will explore the many businesses housed at 97 Orchard Street. This will be the Museum's first-ever wheelchair-accessible exhibit at 97 Orchard Street. Check back soon for more information.
Tour the Neighborhood. All neighborhood tours are wheelchair accessible. During the winter, the Foods of the Lower East Side tour take place in a wheelchair accessible indoor room. Learn more on our neighborhood tours page.
The Visitors Center is equipped with universally designed elevators and restrooms on the ground and basement levels.
Tenement Talks, the Museum's free evening book and talk series, is fully wheelchair accessible.
Starting in 2012, the Museum will offer a new exhibit, "Shop Life", which will explore the many businesses housed at 97 Orchard Street. This will be the Museum's first-ever wheelchair-accessible exhibit at 97 Orchard Street. Check back soon for more information.
Tour the Neighborhood. All neighborhood tours are wheelchair accessible. During the winter, the Foods of the Lower East Side tour take place in a wheelchair accessible indoor room. Learn more on our neighborhood tours page.
The Visitors Center is equipped with universally designed elevators and restrooms on the ground and basement levels.
Tenement Talks, the Museum's free evening book and talk series, is fully wheelchair accessible.
Large print versions of primary source documents are offered on all tours.
Braille translations of primary source documents cited on Tour the Building tours are available with advanced request.
Combine any of our Tour the Building tours with handling objects, verbal imaging and an architectural model of 97 Orchard. These private group programs are only available for groups of five or more, and must be booked in advance.
DEAF EDUCATOR: ALEXANDRIA WAILESThe Tenement Museum's deaf educator, Alexandria Wailes, leads quarterly ASL tours with no voice interpretation for the public. Check the Upcoming Access Events section of this page for public ASL tour dates.
Alexandria is also available to lead group tours with advanced notice. If you have a group of five or more individuals, schedule a group ASL tour by contacting our Visitor Services Coordinator.
Portable FM systems with headsets or neck loops are available at the Visitor Center for all Museum programs. The retail and ticketing kiosks as well as public programming at the Visitor Center at 103 Orchard is equipped with t-coil compatible induction loops. In addition, the media program on the Irish Outsiders tour is equipped with a T-coil compatible induction loop.
The Museum's orientation film, An American Story, is open captioned. This film is showed on loop at the Museum's Visitors Center at 103 and is free.
Large print materials are available for most programs. Ask for these materials at the Visitor Center.
Questions? Contact Education Associate for Program Development at 212 431-0233 x232
