My To-Do List
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Event Schedule
Jan. 23
3 p.m. – 4 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 23 – Zoom & UniD Tools Practice Session and Open Q & A No. 1: FOCUS ON: UniD Production Software Backend (video recording; audio recording, and captions)
CART: #8318872 [Katie Arioli] Captioning URL/Streamtext Link: https://www.streamtext.net/
6 p.m. – 7 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 23 – Judges & Justices-Only Orientation (All Judges & Justices Should Attend; video recording; audio recording, and captions)
Jan. 30
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 30 – Zoom & UniD Tools Practice Session and Open Q & A No. 2: FOCUS ON: UniD Production Software FrontEnd (video recording; audio recording, and captions)
CART: #8318882 [Katie Arioli] Captioning URL/Streamtext Link: https://www.streamtext.net/
Feb. 4
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST Tuesday, Feb. 4 – Zoom & UniD Tools Practice Session and Open Q & A No. 3 FOCUS ON: Object Description best practices (video recording; audio recording, and captions)
CART: #8318897 [Caryn Broome] Captioning URL/Streamtext Link: https://www.streamtext.net/
Feb. 9:
PRACTICE DESCRIPTION 1 (Object) DEADLINE: 11:59 p.m. EST Sunday, Feb. 9 – 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 Feb. 12
Link to Your Practice Description can be found in two places on your D11 Home Page: 1. Under "To Do - Ongoing," or, 2. In the D11 Tourney Bracket
Feb. 13
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 13 – Zoom & UniD Tools Practice Session and Open Q & A No. 4 FOCUS ON: UniD website resources (video recording; audio recording, and captions)
CART: #8318906 [Annabelle Thompson] Captioning URL/Streamtext Link: https://www.streamtext.net/
Feb. 16:
YOUR TEAM's CHALLENGE DESCRIPTION 1 (Object) DEADLINE: 11:59 p.m. EST Sunday, Feb. 16 – Your Team's CHALLENGE 1 Description (Describing the OBJECT) is DUE.
Link to Your Challenge can be found in two places on your D11 Home Page: 1. Under "To Do - Ongoing," or, 2. In the D11 Tourney Bracket
JUDGES complete feedback on CHALLENGE 1 by 9 p.m. EST Feb. 20
Feb. 20
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 20 – Zoom & UniD Tools Practice Session and Open Q & A No. 5 FOCUS ON: Access Hound (video recording; audio recording, and captions)
Feb. 25: Descriptathon 11, Day 1
(Joining Instructions, video recording; audio recording, and captions)
9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST: Get ready for D11, 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
2 to 2:15 p.m.: BREAK
3:30 to 3:45 p.m.: BREAK
Recordings of Feb. 25 can be accessed via: (video recording (TBA) and captions (TBA)
JUDGES complete feedback on CHALLENGE 2 by 9 p.m. EST Feb. 25
Feb. 26: Descriptathon 11, Day 2
(Joining Instructions, video recording; audio recording, and 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 5 p.m. EST: Descriptathon-wide Zoom
Recordings of Feb. 26 can be accessed via: (video recording (TBA) and captions (TBA)
JUDGES complete feedback on CHALLENGE 3 by 9 p.m. EST Feb. 26
Feb. 27: Descriptathon 11, Day 3
(Joining Instructions, video recording; audio recording, and 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
1:45 to 2 p.m.: BREAK
JUDGES complete feedback on CHALLENGE 4 by 3:30 p.m. EST Feb. 27
3 to 3:15 p.m.: BREAK
Recordings of Feb. 27 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)
MEETINGS COMPLETED
Jan. 14
2:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 14 – Team Captains-Only Meeting (All Team Captains Will Want to Attend; captions)
CART: #8318756 - [Erica Cook] Captioning URL/Streamtext Link: https://www.streamtext.net/
Jan. 21
3 p.m. – 4 p.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 21 – Descriptathon 11 General Orientation (Everyone Will Want to Attend, video recording; audio recording, and captions)
CART: #8318845 [Chris Ales] Captioning URL/Streamtext Link: https://www.streamtext.net/
6 p.m. – 7 p.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 21 – Justices-Only Orientation (All Justices Will Want to Attend; Joining Instructions, video recording; audio recording, and captions)
Overview
Descriptathon 11 (Feb. 25-27, 2025)
February 25, 2025 through February 27, 2025
A Descriptathon is a hackathon-like collaborative workshop and competition designed to create more-inclusive public places. This one – Descriptathon 11 – will be offered Feb. 25-27, 2025, 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, with one U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service team, plus people from 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 Zoom links, and project details) can be found right here on your Descriptathon 11 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!
Acknowledgments
Thank you!
First of all, thank you to every single person participating in Descriptathon 11! We have more than 200 participants from throughout the United States as well as from Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Peru, Italy, Finland, Hungary, and Denmark. ... 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 Tera Lynn Gray, Amanda Schramm, Shalini Gopie, Kelly Kachurak, and Stephanie Metzler), who spent months helping to organize D11.
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 Assistant Matt Bullen (post-Portland State University) also contributed greatly to the organization of this event.
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 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 (8): Talea Anderson (Washington State University, U.S.), Adeli Sánchez Bermúd (Universidad Ricardo Palma, Perú), Elsa Rosario Guanilo Aranda (Universidad Ricardo Palma, Perú), Dr. Maria Joaquina Valero Gisbert (Università degli Studi di Parma, Italy), Dr. Kyle Keane (University of Bristol, UK), Dr. Vincenza Minutella (University of Torino, Italy), Dr. Amy Pavel (UT Austin, U.S.), and Dr. Derrick Smith (Auburn University, U.S.).
Thank you to the returning Justices (22): Talea Anderson, Debee Armstrong, Renee Arrington-Johnson, Dawn Carello, Matt Carello, Annie Chiappetta, Rosemarie Facilla, Shawntina Gibson, Louise Gillis, Debbie Grubb, Robyn Hughes, Tabitha Kenlon, Vickie Kennedy, Cindy LaBon, Lolly Lijewski, Shirley Manning, Jolie Mason, Gary Schoelerman, Pat Sheehan, Corine Stanley, Jeff Thom, and Sheila Young.
Thank you to the returning volunteers (28): Paula Alexander, LaVerne Bowen, Jordan Camp, Elena De Marco, Silvia Dini, Michael Draper, Karen Edwards, Jim Eynard, Casaundra Freeman, Dr. Maria Gisbert, Lora Haller, Alexandria Hamlin, Magan Harms, Vivian Henry, Laurie Heupel, Lucy Jiang, Jim Kennedy, Kate Kunkel-Patterson, Christine Lowe, Karin Magera, Andreas Miguel, Gary Morin, Anne Nicholson, Andrea Okwesa, Nichole Tramel, Melissa Weih, Tiffany Zadi, and Ruthann Ziegler.
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!”