UniDescription
Descriptathon 10 (Feb. 6-8, 2024)

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Jan. 16

4 p.m. EST Tues, Jan. 16 – Team Captains-Only Meeting (All Team Captains Will Want to Attend; Joining Instructions, Invite Link, video recording; audio recording, and captions) 

6 p.m. EST Tues, Jan. 16 – Justices-Only Orientation (All Justices Will Want to Attend; Joining Instructions, Invite Link, video recording; audio recording, and captions)

Jan. 18

4 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 18 – Descriptathon 10 General Orientation (Everyone Will Want to Attend; Joining Instructions, Invite Link, video recording; audio recording; and captions.

6 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 18 – Judges & Justices-Only Orientation (All Judges & Justices Should Attend; Joining Instructions, Invite Link, video recording; audio recording; and captions)

Jan. 21:

PRACTICE DESCRIPTION 1 (Object) DEADLINE: 11:59 p.m. EST Sunday, Jan. 21 – Your Individual and Your Team's Practice Description 1 (Describing the OBJECT) is DUE; feedback will be provided by admins to the Team Captain by Jan. 24

Link to Your Practice Description can be found in two places on your D10 Home Page: 1. Under "To Do - Ongoing," or, 2. In the D10 Tourney Bracket

Jan. 23

4 p.m. EST Tues, Jan. 23 – Zoom & UniD Tools Practice Session and Open Q & A No. 1 (Joining Instructions, Invite Link, video recording; audio recording, and captions)

Jan. 28:

YOUR TEAM's CHALLENGE DESCRIPTION 1 (Object) DEADLINE: 11:59 p.m. EST Sunday, Jan. 28 – Your Team's CHALLENGE 1 Description (Describing the OBJECT) is DUE; judging happens by Feb. 2

Link to Your Challenge can be found in two places on your D10 Home Page: 1. Under "To Do - Ongoing," or, 2. In the D10 Tourney Bracket

Jan. 30

6 p.m. EST Tues, Jan. 30 – Zoom & UniD Tools Practice Session and Open Q & A No. 2 (Joining Instructions, Invite Link, video recording, audio recording, auto captions, streaming captions)

Feb. 6: Descriptathon 10, Day 1

Joining Instructions, Invite Link, video recording, audio recording, auto captions, streaming captions

• 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST: Get ready for D10, connect with your teammates, work on your To-Do list. (We will open the main Zoom around 11:45 EST but activities won't start until Noon EST).
• 12 to 5 p.m. EST: Descriptathon-wide Zoom
  • Team Captains Introduce Their Teams (and Mascots)
  • Description Fundamentals
  • Discussion of Practice Description 1 (Object)
  • Discussion of CHALLENGE 1 (Object)
  • GUEST SPEAKER: Dr. Megan Conway, Helen Keller National Center
  • 2 to 2:15 p.m.: BREAK
  • Practice Description 2 (People)
  • CHALLENGE 2 (People) 
  • 3:30 to 3:45 p.m.: BREAK
  • GUEST SPEAKER: Jane Manley, Royal National Institute of Blind People
  • Team Workshop (On Your Team Zoom)
  • Best Practices: Maps
  • Recordings of Feb. 6 can be accessed via: (video recording (TBA) and captions (TBA)
  • JUDGES complete feedback on CHALLENGE 2 by 9 p.m. EST Feb. 6

Feb. 7: Descriptathon 10, Day 2

Joining Instructions, Invite Link, video recording, audio recording, auto captions, streaming captions

• 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. EST: Complete the full first draft of your Team's UniD Project (i.e. Audio Description of Your Site's Brochure). We will open the main Zoom around 1:45 p.m. EST but activities won't start until 2 p.m. EST).
• 2 to 4 p.m. EST: Descriptathon-wide Zoom
  • CHALLENGE 2 Feedback (People)
  • Practice Description 3 (Maps) 
  • CHALLENGE 3 (Maps) 
  • Team Workshop (On Your Team Zoom)
  • Recordings of Feb. 7 can be accessed via: (video recording (TBA) and captions (TBA)
  • JUDGES complete feedback on CHALLENGE 3 by 9 p.m. EST Feb. 7

Feb. 8: Descriptathon 10, Day 3

Joining Instructions, Invite Link, video recording, audio recording, auto captions, streaming captions

• 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST: Finish your Team's UniD Project (i.e. Audio Description of Your Site's Brochure). We will open the main Zoom around 11:45 EST but activities won't start until Noon EST).
• 12 to 5 p.m. EST: Descriptathon-wide Zoom
  • Discussion of CHALLENGE 3 (Maps)
  • Best Practices: Collages
  • Practice Description 4 (Collages)
  • CHALLENGE 4 (Collages)
  • 1:45 to 2 p.m.: BREAK
  • Team Workshop (On Your Team Zoom)
  • JUDGES complete feedback on CHALLENGE 4 by 3:30 p.m. EST Feb. 8
  • 3 to 3:15 p.m.: BREAK
  • GUEST SPEAKER: Dr. Maria Valero Gisbert, University of Parma (Italy)
  • Recordings of Feb. 8 can be accessed via: (video recording (TBA) and captions (TBA)
  • RELEASE your Team's UniD Project to the general public (you get the proper permissions, we push the button to share on the app)

Descriptathon 10 (Feb. 6-8, 2024)

February 06, 2024 through February 08, 2024

A Descriptathon is a hackathon-like collaborative workshop and competition designed to create more-inclusive public places. This one – Descriptathon 10 – will be offered Feb. 6-8, 2024, online – via www.unidescription.org – and through a connected Zoom call, with additional Zoom channels and conference-call lines also available for small-group work. The participants this time are mostly from U.S. National Park Service sites, aquariums and zoos around the country, the Blinded Veterans Association, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and the Canadian Council of the Blind. This Descriptathon happens in a walled garden, under standard research protocols, to protect the anonymity of the participants. Yet it also is a public research project, with its findings shared liberally. For participants, all of the connective details (such as the conference call numbers, and project details) can be found on your Descriptathon 10 Home Page link, including on your "To-Do" list within UniD. Through this sort of a "hackathon" process, the UniD research team has helped to make more than 150 U.S. National Park Service sites and other public places more accessible. Thank you for your participation, engagement, and devotion to making the world a more-accessible place!

Thank you!

First of all, thank you to every single person participating in Descriptathon 10! ... You are the Descriptathon. It happens because of you. There is no Descriptathon without you.

And thank you to the many people at the University of Hawaii, the U.S. National Park Service, the American Council of the Blind, The Hawaii-Pacific Islands Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, The University of Hawaii Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Blinded Veterans Association, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, the Canadian Council of the Blind, and Montana Banana for their supportive, kind, and in-kind services, without which this Descriptathon would not have been possible. We also really appreciate the U.S. National Park Service and its leaders (including Amanda Schramm, Shawn Biessel, Shalini Gopie, Holly Griesemer, and Michael Whiteman-Jones) for supporting this Descriptathon.

Thank you to Michele Hartley, Media Accessibility Coordinator for Harpers Ferry Center, the design hub of the National Park Service, for getting this project started a decade ago, in 2014, and for steadfastly supporting it through all of these years and 10 Descriptathons to date. And for moderating most of this Descriptathon; she is the voice of the Descriptathon. Several other staff members at Harpers Ferry Center also have supported this project significantly and helped it along the way, including Brendan Bray, Melissa Cronyn, Pat Lovett, Betsy Ehrlich, and many others. UniD Research Assistants Matt Cullen (Portland State University), Daniel Bergin (UH), Alexandria Hamlin (Liberty University), and Daniel Appiah Gyekye (University of Oregon) also contributed greatly to the organization of this event (and are participating directly in the process). 

Without web & mobile-app developer Joe Oppegaard of MontanaB.com, there also is no UniD project. Thank you, Joe! And our gratitude to MontanaB.com as a company for keeping us on target and handling all technical considerations.

Thank you to Executive Director Dan Spoone and UniD-liaison Tabitha Kenlon of ACB for their continued support of this project. And thank you to the dozens of ACB collaborators, sharing their experiences, wisdom, and energy. 

Thank you to my faculty friends who joined us: Dr. Thomas Hurtut and Dr. Maria Joaquina Valero Gisbert.

Thank you to the returning Justices (21): Debee Armstrong, Renee Arrington-Johnson, Dawn Carello, Matt Carello, Shawntina Gibson, Louise Gillis, Debbie Grubb, Chip Hailey, Robyn Hughes, Vickie Kennedy, Cindy LaBon, Jane Manley, Shirley Manning, Jolie Mason, Tanja Milojevic, Sudha Rajagopalan, Gary Schoelerman, Pat Sheehan, Corine Stanley, Jeff Thom, and Sheila Young.

Thank you to the returning volunteers (18): Talea Anderson, Tom Barrett, Tera Lynn Gray, Thomas Hurtut, Jim Kennedy, Christine Lowe, Ed Marfut, Gary Morin, Anne Nicholson, Andrea Okwesa, Katie Grace Palano, Bob Swift, Kerri Syrus, Brian Thompson, Todd Tolson, Tom Waterfall, Melissa Weih, and Jeannette Woerner.

Thank you to Andreas Miguel for the UniD-inspired song: 

"Hear the World" by Andreas Miguel, aka, "A Song of UniD," released in 2021

The song (Mp3)

The lyrics (Doc)

Thank you to Tia Oppegaard for her continued behind-the-scenes volunteer contributions. She is the coconut artist but so much more!

Also, a special thank you to Adrienne Biddings, Policy Counsel at Google, for introducing the UniD Research Team to ACB, and bringing all of us together for this project, and to Alexander Hauerslev Jensen, Accessibility Partner and Community Programs Manager, and Christopher Patnoe, Head of Accessibility Programs, at Google, for bringing UniD into its new phase with Google as a supporter of our efforts to “Audio Describe the World!”