Audio Description (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.
Audio Description Training: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.
Scholarly Resources:This is the place to deeply dive into Audio Description's empirical research, scholarly documents, and sets of laws and standards. As a hub of information, UniD acts as a public library of key resources.
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 visually impaired to precisely meet low-vision needs in organizational contexts.
Community Engagement: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, or deafblind. Making your media accessible really is just the beginning of building relationships within these communities, which also include family and friends. Audio Description is the first step to show you care.
Are you interested in making the world a more-accessible place? The UniDescription Project is a grant-funded research initiative based at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Our research team is led by Dr. Brett Oppegaard, a faculty member in the College of Social Sciences, who has been collaborating with colleagues in the UH Center on Disability Studies (and elsewhere). We primarily study Audio Description, which involves translating visual media into audible media. Our big-picture goal is simple and straightforward (and exceptionally ambitious, of course, but why not try to do something impactful, like):