LARNED — As part of a nationwide initiative with the National Park Service to assist park visitors who are vision impaired, Fort Larned National Historic Site is completing an audio conversion project of the park’s main brochure, according to park ranger and guide Benjamin Long.
“This week, we are happy to report, the staff at Fort Larned, along with several volunteers from around the country, have been working on audio describing information about the park,” Long said.
“Any of our visitors who are blind, have low vision or have text dyslexia will be able to enjoy the information our brochure presents without anyone else translating the brochure for them,” said Long. “Although this version of our brochure is not yet ready, you can check out other sites’ audio-described brochures by downloading the UniDescription app for Apple or Android.”
According to Long, the UniDescription app is part of a grant-funded research initiative based at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In addition to providing audio description, UniDescription also serves as a research and development facilitator for the American Council of the Blind. In addition to the National Park Service, other UniDescription benefactors include the National Endowment of the Humanities and the National Endowment of the Arts.
“In addition to Fort Larned, other parks from around the United Sates are coming together for what is known as a Descriptathon, which is an efficient way to learn about audio description,” Long said.
According to unidescription.org, a Descriptathon incorporates gameplay to investigate ideas about media accessibility, especially for people who are blind, deaf-blind and low vision.
“All of the national parks that have used audio description have used UniDescription,” Long said.
He added that National Park Service guidelines state that parks’ main brochures must follow what is known as a unigrid format, which is a comprehensive graphic design system that standardizes formatting and production. It allows designers, writers and cartographers to focus on content and creativity while conveying a strong visual identity for the park service.
The audio description of the entire Fort Larned brochure should be wrapped up within the next few weeks, according to Long. “We’re just working on the finishing touches. This past week was pretty labor intensive because we are trying to get better at audio descriptions and make it as pleasant experience as we can for our visitors.”
Photos, maps and collages are included in the audio descriptions.
“They are described in such a way that visitors who are blind or who have low vision can fully understand and appreciate the information the map or picture is conveying,” Long said.
