Accessibility at the Museum

The Tenement Museum welcomes all visitors. We recognize the diverse needs of our audience and offer accessible programs and services to enable all visitors to explore the stories we interpret at the Tenement Museum.

For questions about Museum accessibility and how we can accommodate your specific needs, call 646-518-3038 or e-mail [email protected].

Accessibility and COVID-19

Getting to the Museum

At the Visitor Center

Web Accessibility

The Tenement Museum offers discounted entry and special $65 memberships for visitors with disabilities, as well as free entry to care partners. Please call 646-518-3038 or email [email protected] to receive this discount and/or free entry for a care partner. For a discounted membership, please call our membership line 646-518-3007.

Accessibility and COVID-19

Recommended Tours 

Tours and guided experiences are the only ways to access our historic buildings. These often include small, low lit spaces. If you have difficulties in small spaces please call 646-518-4041 or e-mail [email protected] for recommendations. 

Wheelchair Accessible Tours 

Building Tours

Under One Roof

Explore the stories of the Saez Velez and Wong families in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Neighborhood Walking Tours

Reclaiming Black Spaces

In our newest walking tour, discover what drew Black New Yorkers to Lower Manhattan, and how their experiences were shaped by that migration.

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Building Tours

Finding Home

Visit the tenement homes of the Epstein and Saez Velez families in the 1950s and 1960s.

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The Grand Street Guild and Saint Marys Church

Neighborhood Walking Tours

Building on the Lower East Side

Explore the architecture of the Lower East Side to discover how people and communities have shaped the streetscape over the last 200 years.

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Historic photo of the Forward Building on the Lower East Side

Neighborhood Walking Tours

Outside the Home

Step into the past and walk in the footsteps of immigrants to discover the neighborhood landmarks of their lives on the Lower East Side.

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Children Under 12 Permitted, Meet the Residents

Meet Victoria: 1916

The Tenement Museum welcomes all visitors. We recognize the diverse needs of our audience and offer accessible programs and services to enable all visitors to...

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wheelchair symbol   Wheelchair Accessibility

The Museum has a limited amount of wheelchairs available to borrow for wheelchair accessible programs. To reserve a wheelchair for your visit please call our Call Center at 1-877-975-3786 (Monday–Saturday: 9 am–5 pm) or email [email protected]  

Individuals who are Blind or have Low Vision 

Handling objects are available for our Hard Times, Finding Home, Cultural Crossroads, and Day in the Life tours. Ask for these materials when you arrive at the Visitors Center. 

Visitors can book a free tactile orientation to the Museum before their tour with two weeks’ advance notice. Please contact us to schedule at [email protected] or 646-518-4041 

Individuals who are Deaf or have Hearing Loss 

Assistive Listening Devices 

The Museum offers FM assistive listening devices upon request for all tours and evening programming. Ask a representative at the Visitors Center upon arrival. 

 Induction Loops 

Portions of the Hard Times, Finding Home, and Cultural Crossroads tours include audio-visual elements equipped with induction loops. 

Mask Policy

Visitors will be required to wear face coverings while taking an indoor building tour and visiting our Museum Shop, but they are optional on our walking tours. If a visitor has scheduled an indoor building tour but is unable to wear a mask, face covering, or face shield due to a disability, they will be given the following options as reasonable accommodations as alternatives to taking an in-person tour:

  • Take an available scheduled walking tour
  • Take a scheduled virtual program in the future
  • Schedule a private virtual tour for a future date
Promotional photo of an actress playing Victoria Confino. Smiling, she wears a headband and blue checkered apron as she hangs clothes on a line hanging in the kitchen of the Confino apartment

Virtual Experiences

The Tenement Museum offers a slate of digital programs. You can learn more about these at our Virtual Experiences page.

The Museum is committed to increasing the accessibility of these virtual programs. Accessibility accommodations are available for all of our virtual programs. To request accessibility accommodations, please email us at [email protected] with a minimum of two weeks’ notice.

We are also hosting a small number of accessibility focused programs. For more information and to be placed on our invite list for these programs please contact us at [email protected].

Getting to the Museum

wheelchair symbol   Wheelchair Accessibility

The Delancey-Essex F/J/M/Z station has no elevator. The uptown F platform has an escalator to exit to the street. The nearest wheelchair accessible subway station is B/D/F/M/6 to Broadway-Lafayette Street.

At the Museum

 toilet symbol   Restrooms

The Visitors Center is equipped with universally designed elevators and restrooms on the basement level.