Join the 2025 Descriptathon and help make national parks more accessible! The American Council of the Blind, the National Park Service, and UniDescription (UniD) are recruiting new volunteers to create audio descriptions for selected national park brochures. Teams are composed of people who are both sighted and those on the blindness spectrum. They will collaborate to describe maps, paintings, and visual images within park brochures. Because all meetings are held remotely, volunteers may find themselves learning about a park in their own backyard or on the other side of the continent. A number of BVA members have successfully participated in Descriptathon in the past.

The Descriptathon is a full-day event occurring February 25-27, 2025. Volunteers are expected to attend all three days and spend approximately ten hours of preparation during the five weeks (approximately two hours per week) before the kick-off on February 25. During this prep time, team members will learn about audio descriptions and how to use the UniD tool to describe the brochure assigned to them. They will also become acquainted with their teammates. Four to six hours may be needed to finalize the brochure description after the three-day event. Volunteers should have solid computer skills and be comfortable learning new technology.

Interested BVA members ready to commit and join a team should complete a short online form or email brett.oppegaard@hawaii.edu.