As part of the Museum's mission to make the visual arts accessible to everyone, a variety of tours are offered to help visitors with disabilities get the most from their visit. Led by specially trained, experienced Museum Guides, these tours include:

Specially Tailored Tours

These tours are available by prearrangement for individuals or groups from the mental health community and those with Autism, Alzheimer’s, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, or other unique perspectives. Themed tours are developed around the needs and interests of the participants and can focus on any aspect of the Museum’s collections and exhibitions. Touchable and visual materials supplement descriptions and discussions.

Sign Language Interpreted Tours

Collections and exhibitions are available by prearrangement for individuals or groups who are deaf or hearing impaired. In addition, assistive listening devices are available for use on any tour. Printed scripts of all audio tours are available at any Visitor Services desk.

Touch Tours

Selected original works of art in the Museum's collections are available for visitors who are blind or visually impaired to experience through touch. The Museum Guide's visual descriptions are supplemented by the visitor’s guided touching of these objects. Touch Tour topics include:

• Modern and Contemporary Art: one of the objects is the 13-foot stainless steel sculpture Two Box Structure (1961) by David Smith.
• Nineteenth-Century European Art: includes the life-size bronze sculpture The Large Bather and the 2-foot-tall bronze bas-relief Tambourine Dancer I, both by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
• European Decorative Arts and Sculpture: includes a Medieval cloister with a marble fountain, columns and capitals, as well as the 3-foot-tall sculpture Virgin and Child (c. 1350).
• East Asian Art: includes an 18-inch stone head from Cambodia, a wood and iron object from Korea, and the complete Japanese Teahouse Sunkaraku (c. 1917) from Tokyo.
• Indian and Himalayan Art: includes an Indian Temple Hall (c. 1525–50), from Madura, India, with intricately carved figures covering its 26 granite columns, also a 4-foot-tall depiction of Durga as the Slayer of the Demon Nishumbha (c. 950) and a Seated Lion (c. 650) from southern India.
• The Rodin Museum: Located at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 22nd Street, this tour includes numerous sculptures by French artist Auguste Rodin, including his 20 x 13 feet Gates of Hell, the life-size Colossal Head of Balzac, The Burghers of Calais, and The Hand of God.

Touchable Interpretations of Paintings

Three-dimensional representations of selected paintings allow blind, visually impaired, and sighted visitors alike to experience masterpieces from the collections that cannot be touched. Each interpretation consists of three parts:

• A visual description that "builds" the painting, step by step
• A series of black-and-white, raised-line, textured diagrams that illustrate the building process
• A 2 to 6-inch-thick sculptural representation of the painting that is colored and textured to resemble the original subjects

Paintings include: Still Life with Apples and a Glass of Wine by Paul Cézanne, Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks, Portrait of Camille Roulin by Vincent van Gogh, and Saint Francis of Assissi Receiving the Stigmata by Jan van Eyck.

Hands-On Object Kits

Visitors and groups who learn best by manipulating materials may make arrangements to examine reproductions of objects with a Museum guide before their gallery tour. Hands-On Object Kits relate to tour themes, including Asian Art, Medieval Art, Nineteenth-Century European Art, and Twentieth-Century Art.

General admission fees for individuals are listed on the Visitor Information page.

Entrance fees for groups of five or more for tours of the collections are:

• $6 per person
  Escorts are admitted free of charge (one escort per visitor)

Entrance fees for group tours of special exhibitions are the same for all visitors.

Registration

All programs require registration. To reserve your space, call (215) 684-7602 at least three weeks prior to your preferred date.

For more information, please contact Accessible Programs by phone at (215) 684-7602 or TTY (215) 684-7600, or by fax at (215) 684-7395.