Access for All: Open Door Connections

It is an essential part of our mission to never turn away an individual or group for any reason, and to partner with community organizations to seek out underserved audiences and find ways to help them access the Museum and our programs.  

Board of Directors Statement of Inclusion and Accessibility

Discovery Museum is committed to welcoming children and the adults in their lives. We seek out, welcome, and embrace learners of all ages, abilities, economic, and cultural circumstances. As an organization, we strive to broadly reflect the communities we serve, both in visitors to our campus and our own staff/volunteers/board members. Through community partnerships and targeted initiatives, we work to increase access for individuals, families, and communities facing barriers to visitation. We seek to keep programs, exhibits, and our campus accessible, appropriate, and welcoming to all and actively encourage and consider feedback with respect to potential improvements, modifications, and adaptations.

We are proud to have been designated by the Massachusetts Cultural Council as an UP Organization, "...demonstrating a commitment to learn, take action, and embrace inclusivity as a core organizational value."  

We thank the MCC for its support. 

Fun for everyone

Open Door Connections (ODC) programs support innovative hands-on learning and meaningful play experiences for all. We strive to provide opportunities for those who face a variety of barriers—financial, developmental, or cultural—to experience the Museum.

We work closely with schools to ensure that financial constraints are not a barrier for learning hands-on math and science. Every year we provide free and discounted programs to schools in need, including Field Trips to the Museum and Traveling Science Workshops in PreK through 8th grade school classrooms.

Partnering to grow access opportunities

Through Open Door Connections, we work to broaden the depth and reach of Museum offerings by working directly with partner organizations so we can better identify families and schools with need and engage them in all that Discovery Museum has to offer. We work with organizations including Massachusetts Cultural Council, Spanish American Center (SAC), First Teacher, First Connections, Wonderfund, The Commission of Status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Acton Housing Authority, SMOC Head Start Hudson, SMOC Head Start Marlborough, Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE), and more. Our objective is for all members of the community to feel a part of the Museum community.

How are we doing?

Each year since 2011 we have served visitors in the Museum and students and teachers on-site and in school classrooms through Open Door Connections programs, working to lessen or remove financial barriers to visitation, school Field Trips, and in-school STEM workshops. Including the years impacted by the pandemic, we have consistently served 22% to 28% of our audience for free or deeply subsidized cost:

• 2025: 26%
• 2024: 28%
• 2023: 25%
• 2022: 28%

Especially for Me

ODC events include the Especially for Me program series, which offers free evenings at the Museum for families with children on the autism spectrum in conjunction with the Autism Alliance of MetroWest; free mornings and evenings for families of children who are deaf or experience hearing loss, offered in conjunction with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program of Children's Hospital Boston; free evenings for families with children with vision loss, offered with the support of Perkins School for the Blind, and All-Access events for any family that would benefit.

Seeking Partners

If you are with an organization that would like to work with us around Open Door Connections, please contact sheilman [at] discoveryacton.org (Susan Heilman), Director of Community Partnerships, or call her at 978-264-4200. We would love to hear from you.

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