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What is a Descriptathon?

  • A gamified way to learn about Audio Description: What is Audio Description? Who uses it, and how? Why is it so important? How does it differ from other types of writing and communication? What are the best practices and top pro secrets? We use conference calls plus online tools and resources to create an engaging learning environment that incorporates gameplay to investigate ideas about media accessibility, especially for people who are DeafBlind, blind, and low-vision.
  • A fun way to practice Audio Description: We think people learn best — no matter what the topic — when they are motivated by interactions with others and having a good time in a social setting, even if that setting is virtual. Our training is tourney-style, featuring small teams and light-hearted competitions, peppered with Hawaii-oriented prizes. To be clear, as enjoyable and rewarding as it can be, the Descriptathon still is an intense three-day workshop that requires attention and dedicated engagement of all participants. We think if you’re going to commit to multiple days of learning about Audio Description, we are going to make it exciting and worth your while. Besides the three-day event, Descriptathoners also spend about 10 hours (2 hours a week for 5 weeks) prepping for the workshop. The outcomes, in turn, are concrete and impactful with each team producing an audio-described brochure made available to the public and team members taking these media-accessibility interests and skills with them for life.
  • An efficient way to produce Audio Description: We don't just practice these Audio Description skills in cloistered safe spaces. We also make Audio Description for real contexts during this process, openly testing our ideas in public labs all over the country (and the world). In other words, we learn about and practice Audio Description in ways that make the world more accessible at the same time.
Descriptathon 10 (Feb. 6-8, 2024): Celebrating a decade, our Descriptathon 10 coconut trophy is shown on a black background.

Descriptathon 10 (Feb. 6-8, 2024): Celebrating a decade, our Descriptathon 10 coconut trophy is shown on a black background. It is a metallic gold color, with the shape of the U.S. National Park Service arrowhead.

Want to take part?

When we have enough people to support a Descriptathon, we put one on and invite interested parties. That typically happens once or twice a year.

Email interest

Take part in a Descriptathon

It costs $9,500 to support each team. A team might be the staff from a single museum, or one company might want to bring in multiple teams to train more of their staff. Each team usually has 5 to 10 people.

Your teams will also be joined by a couple of people who are DeafBlind, or blind, or who have low vision and optionally an external person who is sighted and engaged in the description process, like some of our more experienced describers. Throughout our time together we encourage active collaboration and co-creation of description.

Typically we will run a Descriptathon once we have 12 teams ready to go, but we can always run smaller Descriptathons if your organization is ready to go and is able to supply multiple teams.

How to Get Involved

On the individual level, here are some of the learner roles you can take in this project:

Learn on your own

We provide open-access to our learning materials, meaning it's free to use and free to share your content widely. There also are many free public resources on the site. So you can create a free account and start describing right away, independently.

Volunteer for a Descriptathon

Our intense hackathon-inspired workshops happen roughly once or twice a year. We always are looking for engaged and motivated volunteers to help with Descriptathon teams. If you want to try out the three-day workshop as a volunteer, just let us know.

Create a Descriptathon team

If you have a project to describe, at least two organizational members who want to participate, and funds to use to support the larger workshop, contact us about entering a team.

Host a Descriptathon

If you have an organizational structure that could support multiple teams and even a portion of a Descriptathon (minimum of 8 teams), you might want to host your own tailored event.

The Descriptathon grand prize coconut.

The grand prize "the Coconut" takes center stage in this collection of Descriptathon prizes. All coconut art was created by volunteer Tia Oppegaard.

Descriptathon Hall of Fame

Latest Champions

  • D11 (2025): Moores Creek National Battlefield
  • D10 (2024): Pinnacles National Park
  • D9 (2022): Pullman National Monument
  • D8 (2021): Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
  • D7 (2021): Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Past Winners

  • D6 (2020): Desert National Wildlife Refuge
  • D5 (2019): Frederick Law Olmsted NHS
  • D4 (2019): Weir Farm National Historical Park
  • D3 (2017): Whiskeytown "Shasta" Trinity NRA
  • D2 (2017): Valley Forge National Historical Park
  • D1 (2016): Pilot Workshop

Championship Stats

9

U.S. National Park Service

1

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

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