Join the 2025 Descriptathon and help make national parks more accessible! ACB, the National Park Service, and UniDescription (UniD) are recruiting volunteers on the blindness spectrum to create audio descriptions for selected national park brochures. Teams are composed of people who are sighted and people who are blind or have low vision, 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 take place February 25–27, 2025 (volunteers are expected to attend all three full-day sessions). 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.
This is a unique opportunity to participate in the creation of accessible materials and demonstrate the power of “nothing about us without us.” It’s a chance to meet new people, develop technical and communication skills, learn about national parks and audio description, build confidence, and have fun. UPDATE: Listen to a podcast about the UniDescription Project.
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 and tell him the ACB sent you! (Updated Dec 6)