UniDescription

Researching the 3Ds of Audio Description

We study descriptions, description tools, and Descriptathons – not necessarily in that order

What can the UniD project do for you?

    Established in 2014, The UniDescription Project is a university-based research initiative. That means it is entirely funded by grants and supplemented by support systems at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the U.S. National Park Service, the American Council of the Blind, and our many other partners around the world. Profit is not our motive. Our prime directive is to support the building of more-accessible public places, and communities related to those public places, especially for people who are blind or who have low-vision. We do that foundational place-making work through empirical and constructivist research methods aimed at improving Audio Description processes and products. More specifically, that means we ...

  • Refine Audio Description Composition Techniques (aka, Visual-to-Audio Translation): If you want something to be heard that otherwise only can be seen (such as a photograph, a painting, a poster, a statue, a map, etc.), UniD can help you to learn how to do it and also give you the open-access tools to produce and share your work.

  • Train People (For Free) to Audio Describe: You can learn how to audio describe here. Whether you need the support of a template, as a way to get started, or an overview of Audio Description genres, or a style guide, or best practices, or any other number of helpful learning resources, UniD provides open-access online training and resource lists.

  • Collect and Openly Share Scholarly Resources: This is the place to deeply dive into Audio Description's research literature, scholarly documents, and sets of laws, standards, and best practices. As a hub of information, UniD acts as an open public library of key resources in this field.

  • Create and Openly Share Project Management Tools: If you need a way to manage and organize your Audio Description – by projects, by themes, by locations, etc. – UniD is designed for (and with) people who are blind or who have low-vision to precisely meet accessibility needs in organizational contexts.

  • Engage Deeply and Directly With the Communities We Serve: We don't just build it, and hope "they" will come. UniD can help connect you and your resource with communities of people who are blind, low-vision, and/or Deafblind. Making your media accessible really is just the beginning of building relationships within these communities, which also include family and friends of people who cannot see or cannot see well. Audio Description is the first step to show you care.

  • Provide Production Services for Those Who Want or Need the Direct Help: For those who want accessible media and want it now, our Service team at UniDescription.com can jump into any situation and not only ensure legal compliance but also follow the spirit of accessibility laws to provide useful, engaging, and fully accessible media. That includes services for website or mobile app compliance checks (determining where accessibility problems exist); providing system integration (connecting Audio Description production and dissemination tools directly to your website via your digital asset management software or through a custom app); training on Audio Description fundamentals and software; and other types of support systems for your organization's research and development of more-inclusive practices.

Are you interested in making the world a more-accessible place? The UniDescription Project is led by Dr. Brett Oppegaard, a Professor at UH, in the College of Social Sciences, in the School of Communication and Information, who has been collaborating with colleagues in the UH Center on Disability Studies (and elsewhere). Our big-picture goal is simple and straightforward: Audio Describe the World!

DESCRIBING: A vertical color photograph. DESCRIPTION: Two men, the Kamaka brothers, face a massive marble wall in the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, with their heads bowed slightly, as in deep thought and contemplation. They are standing in a line, one in front of the other, with the second man putting his right hand on the first man's right shoulder. The wall lists rows and rows of names and military ranks. Those are referring to people who died in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Since the men are facing the wall, their faces cannot be seen or described. The man closest to the wall, Lance, is taller than the other, Hilarion, and wearing a dark blue shirt and black pants. The man second in line, Hilarion, is wearing a gray shirt that has horizontal black and white stripes and dark pants. Both have short hair, but the first man's hair color is mostly dark, and the second man's is mostly gray. In front of them is another pair of people also communing with the wall at this site, but they are obscured in the image by the two brothers. Because of that, only a part of one of them can be seen and the back of the other. But through that small window of view, the people can be seen touching, with a hand of the mostly obscured person on the shoulder of the other, a woman in a white hat, with a pony tail. Those two people are looking at the wall but otherwise sharing this space with the Kamaka brothers at the same time and in basically the same ways. CAPTION: Hawaii Association of the Blind members Hilarion and Lance Kamaka stand silently and with reverance near the name-filled marble walls inside the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. This Pearl Harbor National Memorial site commemorates the nearly 1,200 people who died on that ship when it was attacked and sunk on Dec. 7, 1941 in the Oahu harbor. Hilarion is standing behind his older brother and resting his right hand on Lance's right shoulder. Lance is holding a white cane, and the men also have visible hearing aids, indicating they are both hard of hearing and blind. The brothers recalled visiting the National Park Service site decades ago, as children, but had felt that the site at the time was inaccessible to them and not worthy of a return visit. That changed when they were invited back in April 2023 as part of a research project being conducted by The UniDescription Project. On this return visit, Lance said, the site's accessibility had improved greatly, and this improved access allowed him and his brother to properly pay their respects to the people who had perished and also to learn more about the history of the place and its role in World War II. For our part, the UniD research team has collaborated with the Hawaii Association of the Blind and the Pearl Harbor staff, including Chief of Interpretation David Kilton, to audio describe the site's official print brochures for Pearl Harbor National Memorial, the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, the U.S.S. Oklahoma Memorial, and the U.S.S. Utah Memorial. Descriptions of those national park sites (and more than 150 others) are available now in the free UniD app (for iOS or Android).
Hawaii Association of the Blind members Hilarion and Lance Kamaka stand silently and with reverance near the name-filled marble walls inside the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. This Pearl Harbor National Memorial site commemorates the nearly 1,200 people who died on that ship when it was attacked and sunk on Dec. 7, 1941 in the Oahu harbor. Hilarion is standing behind his older brother and resting his right hand on Lance's right shoulder. Lance is holding a white cane, and the men also have visible hearing aids, indicating they are both hard of hearing and blind. The brothers recalled visiting the National Park Service site decades ago, as children, but had felt that the site at the time was inaccessible to them and not worthy of a return visit. That changed when they were invited back in April 2023 as part of a research project being conducted by The UniDescription Project. On this return visit, Lance said, the site's accessibility had improved greatly, and this improved access allowed him and his brother to properly pay their respects to the people who had perished and also to learn more about the history of the place and its role in World War II. For our part, the UniD research team has collaborated with the Hawaii Association of the Blind and the Pearl Harbor staff, including Chief of Interpretation David Kilton, to audio describe the site's official print brochures for Pearl Harbor National Memorial, the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, the U.S.S. Oklahoma Memorial, and the U.S.S. Utah Memorial. Descriptions of those national park sites (and more than 150 others) are available now in the free UniD app (for iOS or Android).
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We Get Results

~200

National Park Service sites using UniD

45+

U.S. states, where UniD is used

40+

Peer-reviewed papers, posters, and presentations on this project

$1 Mil+

In federal and corporate grant support



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Funded by research grants, UniD is open-access (no cost to users), open-source (we share our code), and ready to serve

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