Exercise Your Creativity and Help Make National Park Brochures Accessible

Join the 2025 Descriptathon and help make national parks more accessible! ACB, the National Park Service, and UniDescription (UniD) are recruiting volunteers to create audio descriptions for selected national park brochures. Teams are composed of people who are sighted and people on the blindness spectrum, all of whom will collaborate to describe maps, paintings, and visual images within park brochures. All meetings are held remotely, so you might find yourself learning about a park in your state or across the continent.

The Descriptathon will be a full-day event, taking place February 25–27, 2025 (volunteers are expected to attend all three days). Participants will likely spend ten hours of prep time in the five weeks before the kick-off on February 25 (approximately two hours a week). During this prep time, team members will learn about audio description, how to use the UniD tool to describe their brochure, and get to know their teammates. Four to six hours might be needed to finalize the brochure description after the three-day event. Volunteers should have solid computer skills and be comfortable learning new technology.

If this sounds great and you're ready to commit and join a team, please complete this short online form: D11 Registration form or email brett.oppegaard@hawaii.edu. (Posted Oct 23)

Audio Description Awards Gala

It’s almost time for the fourth annual Audio Description Awards Gala! On Thursday, November 14, at 7:30pm ET, the Awards Gala will recognize outstanding achievement in a dozen media and entertainment categories, as well as announce the People’s Choice Award winners.

Hosts Marilee Talkington and Alie B. Gorrie will welcome celebrity guests like actor Kathy Bates, Paralympics Hall of Famer Trischa Zorn-Hudson, accessible gaming consultant Ross Minor, digital creator and advocate Molly Burke,  and author and disability rights advocate Rebecca Alexander, and many more. The Awards Gala will air with captions, audio description, ASL interpretation, and a simultaneous full Spanish translation. The Awards Gala will be available on multiple platforms:

• ACB Media 1 (English) and ACB Media 8 (Spanish)
• ACB’s YouTube channel
• ACB Community watch party on Zoom and Clubhouse
• ADAwardsGala.org
• Peacock, courtesy NBCUniversal (subscription required)

Mark your calendar and visit ADAwardsGala.org to make a donation; your support helps ACB and the Audio Description Project keep advocating for the audio description you love. (To donate by phone, call the ACB Financial Office at 612-332-3242.) Join us on the virtual red carpet on November 14! (Posted Oct 21)

Upcoming ACB Community Events

The Audio Description Project has many committees that work hard to advocate for more and better audio description. Starting in October, committee members will be sharing their knowledge and inviting you to join the conversation through a series of Zoom calls held as ACB Community Events. Our first call was held on October 24: Audio Description and Digital Antenna Broadcast Television Accessibility. Future Schedule:

November 14, 7:30pm ET: The 4th Annual Audio Description Awards Gala and After Party.
December: ADP Media: Holiday Favorites with AD, with panelists Carl Richardson, Renee Arrington Johnson, and John Stark.
January: ADP Media: AD Career Paths for People who Are Blind or Have Low Vision, a panel discussion facilitated by Nona Haroyan.
February: ADP Media: Oscar Nominations with AD, with panelists John Stark, Carl Richardson, Renee Arrington Johnson, and special guests.
March: ADP Media:  Diversity and Audio Description, with panelists John Stark, Carl Richardson, and special guests.
April:  Section 508:  AD in Federal and State Government, presented by Pat Sheehan and Gary Morin.

We'll let you know when dates and times are selected. You'll be able to listen to the conversations on ACB Media, or you can join the Zoom call if you subscribe to ACB's Community Events email (to subscribe, send an email to ACB-Community-Events+subscribe@acblists.org). Stay tuned as we explore the art, science, technology, stories, and people of audio description! (Updated Oct 25)