All areas of our buildings are accessible.

There are accessible toilets available on the ground floor of Burlington House. There is also an accessible toilet on the lower ground floor of Burlington House, next to the Dining Room in the Keeper’s House.

Portable folding stools are available for use in the galleries and can be collected on your way into the exhibitions.

We have two parking spaces available for blue badge holders. To book, call 020 7300 8028.

We do everything we can to make the RA accessible for blind and visually impaired visitors.

• We welcome guide and hearing dogs.
• Large print lists of works and gallery guides are available for exhibitions.
• Audio guides are available for most exhibitions and always include a selection of audio described stops. These are free of charge for visually impaired visitors.

Descriptive tours
A trained volunteer can offer a one-to-one descriptive tour of the exhibition, but please book this volunteer service two weeks in advance of your visit.

Handling events and audio-described tours
Every year a number of sculptures in the Summer Exhibition are available to be explored by touch. They are identified in our large print guides and by a separate list available at the entrance to the exhibition.

We run a series of audio description and handling events for every exhibition, as well as the RA’s permanent collections.

An audio describer delivers a verbal description of artworks. Visitors also handle multi-sensory tailor-made objects created by an artist educator to illustrate the exhibition.

• Download the Hockney Portraits, 82 Portraits and 1 still life large print list of works

• Download the John Gibson: British Sculptor in Rome Council Room large print list of works

• Download the John Gibson: British Sculptor in Rome Tennant Gallery large print list of works

We offer a range of facilities to help visitors explore our exhibitions and come to events.

• We welcome hearing dogs.
• Audio guide transcripts are available on request from the audio guide desk at the entrance of the exhibition.
• Induction loops are available at the Front Desk in Burlington House and also in the Royal Academy shop. Please utilise the loop setting on your hearing aid to use these.

BSL interpretation and live speech-to-text transcription are available for certain events. Each Main Galleries and Sackler Gallery exhibition has at least one associated talk or tour with live speech-to-text transcription and/or BSL interpretation. A BSL speaking deaf host will support each of these events. Please look out for our text and hands symbols to see which events have BSL interpretation and STT provision.

InMind at the RA is our programme of art sessions for visitors living with early to mid-stages of dementia. We welcome people experiencing dementia, their family, carers and support workers. Artist educators lead these workshops within our permanent collection galleries, where we discuss artworks together and explore multi-sensory handling objects to further engage with elements of the artworks. Occasionally these sessions also involve a creative element.

InMind at the RA - ‘Coffee and Conversation’ sessions
Enjoy a cup of coffee and conversation while looking at artworks from the RA Collection and exploring some objects from our tailor made multi sensory handling collection. These sessions take place once a month, cost £3 and are free for carers or family members and for Friends of the RA.

The Access team at the RA welcomes you to a new kind of interactive event. If you are a disabled artist or someone with a creative practice that faces barriers to accessing the art world and you’d like to share your work with others, then we’d like you to join artists from our Community and Access programmes by welcoming you to present a series of slide images of your work and to talk about your art.

If you would like to take part or need more information, please contact our Access Manager Molly Bretton at access@royalacademy.org.uk.

If you would prefer to watch the presentation, or to support and appreciate others then come along!

Each event holds 10 spaces for artist presentations.

These creative workshops are designed for groups working with disabled adults or adults at risk of exclusion from arts and culture. The workshops focus on a chosen RA exhibition and are led by two artist educators. Individuals within the group are supported to explore and respond to artworks within the gallery and then guided to create their own artworks, in response to themes and techniques shown in the exhibition. Each workshop is able to be booked by one group. Once you’ve booked to attend a workshop we’ll be in contact with you to learn more about the nature of your group so that our artist educators can create a session that meets the access requirements and preferences of your group.

We welcome SEN schools for workshops during our programme of Special Schools Weeks, which run three times a year. We also offer artmaking workshops for families with children with SEN throughout the year.

2015–16 Special Schools Weeks dates:

21 – 25 Sept 2015: Responding creatively to works by Ai Weiwei

1 – 5 Feb 2016: Workshops drawing inspiration from ‘Painting the Modern Garden’

10 and 11 March 2016: Exploring works from the RA Collection

27 June – 1 July 2016: Engaging with the RA’s Summer Exhibition 2016

These workshops are tailored to the needs of each group and include multi-sensory exhibition tours, followed by handling and creative sessions.

Specially trained RA Access volunteers support these workshops, which take place between 10.30am and 2pm.

Call 020 7300 5995 for more information.

This programme is supported by The Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation.