Mission
The mission of the American Council of the Blind's (ACB) Audio Description Project (ADP) is to advocate for high-quality audio description in television, movies, performing arts, museums, educational materials, and other visual media. The ADP maintains a directory of filmed media with audio description and sponsors activities and events to train describers, honor audio description excellence, and raise awareness of the value of audio description.
History
The Audio Description Project was founded in 2009, when Dr. Joel Snyder proposed that the American Council of the Blind (ACB) take up the work of Audio Description International (ADI), which had disbanded a few years before. Since then, the ADI’s website had been maintained financially by Barry Levine and updated by Fred Brack. In 2010, the site was renamed the Audio Description Project (ADP) and became part of ACB.
The ADP website continues to house the only comprehensive listing of media available with audio description; though based in and focused on the US, the ADP site has an international scope. The ADP has grown over the years and developed multiple engagement and advocacy initiatives. With support from a full-time ACB staff member, multiple consultants, and more than thirty volunteers, the ADP continues to advocate for consistent creation, distribution, and use of high-quality audio description.
Timeline
2009: The Audio Description Project is founded by Dr. Joel Snyder and supported by the American Council of the Blind
2009: ADP Conference, panels and presentations on a range of topics related to audio description
2010: The Audio Description International website is re-named and becomes the home of the Audio Description Project.
2010: ADP Awards, honoring individuals and organizations for excellence in audio description creation and research
2010: Audio Description Institute, training for audio describers; taught by Dr. Joel Snyder and a faculty of sighted and blind audio description professionals
2010: Young Described Film Critics Contest (re-named Benefits of Audio Description in Education in 2016)
2013: Creation of Steering, Media, and Performing Arts Committees
2016: Benefits of Audio Description in Education (BADIE), an essay contest for young people; co-sponsored with the Described and Captioned Media Program
2017: Creation of Section 508 Committee
2017: UniDescription Project’s Descriptathon, a collaboration with the University of Hawaii and the National Park Service (NPS) to create audio description for NPS brochures
2021: AD Awards Gala, recognizing media organizations for innovative contributions to the field of audio description
2025: Creation of Video Gaming Committee