Safety, Accessibility & Health Concerns

Providing a safe, accessible and healthy environment in which our visitors can play and learn is a top priority for the Children’s Museum of Phoenix. The following information is intended to answer questions you might have about specific Museum procedures and priorities, and will also provide you with some good general tips.

Accessibility

The Children’s Museum of Phoenix is all-inclusive for the children in the greater Phoenix area and we provide barrier-free access for visitors. Our navigation is bilingual and our staff is multilingual as well.

Service animals are welcome in the Museum, and we can provide wheelchairs with advanced notice provided. You can request this service by calling our main number at 602.253.0501 and pressing 0.

Pal Experiences and the Children’s Museum of Phoenix have partnered to create a custom Pal Video and digital, mobile-friendly Pal Guide to support visitors with autism, anxiety, and other learning differences. The resources are free to the public at PalExperiences.org. You can also click this video, which will give you an idea of what to expect when you visit the Children’s Museum of Phoenix’s indoor exhibits.

Safety

The Museum’s safety policies and procedures were developed in conjunction with the Phoenix Police Department. All Museum staff, floor staff, administrative staff, and volunteers receive background checks. Staff members and volunteers are prohibited from touching a child visitor except:

  • In the event of a life threatening injury or preventing a pending accident.
  • In order to prevent bodily injury.
  • At the request of the child’s guardian.

You would think that only people with children would visit a Children’s Museum. However, that is not always the case. Some of these adults are here for meetings with administrative staff. In this case, a staff member greets them at the front door and escorts them to the meeting location. In other cases, adults request access just to see what a Children’s Museum is like. In these cases we always request some form of ID, which we then keep until the visitor has finished their “tour”. They are allotted a certain amount of time for their visit and given a colored wristband for easy identification. Should inappropriate behavior be witnessed or suspected, the Museum has Security staff onsite for these instances.

For the safety of all our guests, children are not allowed to visit the Museum without an adult. Children must be accompanied by their parents or adult caregiver at all times as they travel throughout our exhibit spaces.

Being a Children’s Museum, we are acutely aware that children can sometimes wander off by themselves, or adults can lose sight of their child. The Museum has extensive and effective procedures for locating missing children and/or missing adults.

Our evacuation procedures are designed solely with the protection of adults and children in mind. All staff are trained on proper evacuation procedures which includes getting all visitors out of the building in a calm and orderly fashion as well as includes matching up all children with their proper adult.

Children are our most precious gifts and we want to protect them.

Health Concerns

We take the health of our visitors and staff very seriously and as a result, we’ve made many changes to ensure safer play.

These steps include:

  • Increasing the frequency of cleaning throughout the day with industry-approved surface disinfectant.
  • Providing sanitizing spray throughout the exhibits for guests to utilize as they see fit.
  • Adjusting some of our exhibit elements in order to maintain a thorough cleaning routine.
  • Asking visitors to stay home when they or their children are sick.
  • Asking staff to stay home if they are sick.
  • Encouraging children and families to wash their hands with soap and water frequently.

Be Safe. Be Healthy. Be Playful.

Washing your hands the proper way with soap and water is the BEST way to minimize germs! And with sinks available on all three floors of the Museum, we provide ample opportunities to wash in the most natural and productive way! We even provide child-height sinks to make it easy for the little ones to get into the fun of washing their hands. You’ll also find sanitizing stations throughout our exhibits. Parents are welcome to use the sanitizing spray on both hands and surfaces as they see fit during their visit.

Sometimes we find ourselves in the position of having to tell our visitors that they cannot change their baby’s diaper in the Museum space itself. Transfer of fecal germs is of great concern for children and adults alike. Therefore, the bathroom is really the ONLY place to change your baby’s diaper. And you will find a changing table in each of our bathrooms which is sanitized multiple times throughout the day. Please use them and keep all of us healthy!

Wiping a toilet seat dry with a few pieces of toilet paper before you sit down is a healthier practice. If the seat is wet, even a paper seat cover can’t help because the wetness soaks right through the paper and onto you.