Disability Friendly Openings for Families

Our Disability Friendly Openings are a chance for children with special educational needs and disabilities, who usually find visiting museums overwhelming, and their families, siblings and carers, to explore one of our Museums at their own pace.

What are the sessions like?

There are very limited spaces to keep the museums from feeling too overwhelming. We turn off any sounds and control the lighting as best we can. We provide a chill out space, a sensory den, sensory stories, a craft table and a safe, friendly environment for you to explore the museum.

We have a table set up with a variety of sensory toys that children can chose from to take around the museum with them. It’s fun for the children to choose a toy and starts the sessions in a relaxed, enjoyable way. Our regular attendees, have their favourite toys and love trying to find them on the table! We have duplicates of the most popular toys.

We send you a visual story before the session, so you can understand what to expect on your visit.

Hear from families who have attended in our film, recorded at a Disability Friendly Opening at The Polar Museum.

How can I book?

To hear about future events, sign up to our mailing list and select ‘Families with SEND’.

Upcoming events can be found on our What’s On page by selecting the ‘What’ filter and selecting ‘Disabled access events’, or on the University of Cambridge Museums Eventbrite.

If you have any questions, please contact Marie Kennedy, Learning Associate: Young People at the University of Cambridge Museums: mfk25@cam.ac.uk

For full accessibility information for each of our Museums, please visit each Museum’s website.