Accessibility for all
Accessibility for all means ensuring that every area, service and cultural activity in the Cité can be enjoyed by every visitor, whatever their mother tongue or cultural background and whatever physical, sensory or mental impairment they may have.
The Cité's accessibility facilities benefit everyone. Designing an exhibition for the visually and hearing impaired and for visitors with learning difficulties involves developing multisensory interactive features that offer a unique learning experience. Subtitles on audiovisual displays help viewers to assimilate information and are particularly useful for foreign visitors. In a noisy environment like the Cité this is an advantage for everyone. And the lifts are appreciated by parents with pushchairs and other visitors who simply want to save their energy…
Visually impaired visitors
"Please touch!" You'll often hear this at the Cité des Sciences. Each of our exhibitions includes hands-on displays with diagrams and explanations in Braille so that visually impaired visitors can fully grasp the concepts presented. In the Man and his genes exhibition, for example, you can hold a model of a 14-week foetus in the palm of your hand. And you use all your senses at the Cité: in the Sounds exhibition you can hear a rabbit dreaming, a snail eating a lettuce leaf, and the sounds of over twenty different languages. In The story of the universe you'll touch stones that speak and hear the sound emitted by astroparticles that have crossed the cosmos. So come and explore the Cité…
Contact: info.deficientvisuel@universcience.fr
Tel: 33 (0)1 40 05 75 35
Visitors with learning difficulties
The Cité des Sciences can be enjoyed by everyone. Its multimedia approach and hands-on exhibition features make it easy to assimilate information and ideas. Our accessibility staff will help persons with learning difficulties plan a rewarding visit that corresponds to their needs.
Contact: info.handicap@universcience.fr
Tel: 33 (0)1 40 05 70 86
The Cité also provides information about mental health. Persons accompanying visitors with learning difficulties can find relevant resources at the Cité de la Santé health information centre.
Hearing-impaired visitors
The Cité des Sciences is fully adapted for hearing-impaired visitors. Most exhibitions feature visual, textual and hands-on displays, and almost all the video films in our exhibitions have a French sign language translation or are subtitled (in French, often in English and Spanish too). Some of our public lectures are also subtitled in real time.
The Cité has hearing-impaired explainers who run visits and activities in French sign language, international sign language (for non-French visitors), and tactile sign language (for visitors who are both hearing and visually impaired).
Our ticket counters are fitted with induction loops, as are most of our theatres and cinemas.
Contact: info.sourd@universcience.fr
SMS-videotelephony only: 33 (0)6 32 86 89 49 or 33 (0)6 80 65 04 18
Visitors with limited mobility
Are you a person with limited mobility? You can explore everything the Cité des Sciences has to offer. You can move around freely, enjoy the hands-on activities in every exhibition, and attend any of our shows. All our lecture halls, cinemas, restaurants and toilets are designed for easy access.
Contact: info.handicap@universcience.fr
Tel: 33 (0)1 40 05 70 86
Outreach
The Cité des Sciences is keen to welcome people who do not usually visit cultural institutions. To this end we assist social outreach staff in their work and help them to introduce new visitors to our exhibitions and services.
Contact: bamba.sissoko@universcience.fr
Tel: 33 (0)1 40 05 80 18
Non French-speaking visitors
Visiting a country where you don't speak the language is one thing, visiting a foreign museum and understanding scientific concepts is another. The Cité des Sciences does its best to reduce the language barrier by translating every new exhibition into English and Spanish (and sometimes other languages).
Contact: citeservice@universcience.fr
