Alexandria, Va., July 10, 2024 - The Audio Description Project (ADP) is pleased to announce the 2024 winners of the ADP Awards. The awards honor people and organizations that make outstanding contributions to the quality, availability, and understanding of audio description. This year’s winners span entertainment, education, and information and recognize achievement in digital access and live delivery of AD across a range of platforms and venues. The ADP applauds the dedication to and advancement of inclusion exhibited by the award recipients. Access the award announcement video here: https://youtu.be/udspayg29s8.
The winners are:
Media: Jehovah’s Witnesses initiated an audio description program over the last four years. Staff and volunteers work with members of the blindness community throughout the AD creation process, and audio description is available in more than 100 languages.
Performing Arts (Organization): The Audio-Description Learning Network (ADLN) is a consortium of four Philadelphia-area theatres: People's Light, 1812 Productions, Hedgerow, and the Wilma. The ADLN trains diverse audio describers who are teamed with members of the blindness community so they can get immediate feedback and learn from their future patrons.
Performing Arts (Individual): Beth Crabb has been a member of the audio description team at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville since its inception in 2004. She prepares meticulously for each performance she describes, documenting the music, costumes, set design, and cast of characters, and she’s happy to meet with patrons to answer questions..
Special Achievement in Performing Arts: Think Outside the Vox works to revolutionize diversity and accessibility in the arts. Based in the Boston area, Vox trains culturally competent describers from diverse communities. Teamed with blind trainers and experts, the describers learn the best practices for creating AD for live theatre and museums.
Public Sector:The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism developed Alcohol and Your Brain, a module that educates young audiences about alcohol’s affects on the brain. The audio described version will be included in NIH Section 508 accessibility trainings to demonstrate effective AD and captioning. It has been viewed more than 3,400 times on YouTube.
Dr. Margaret Pfanstiehl Memorial Award for Audio Description Research and Development: Kyle Sisk, Chief Technology Officer at the Described and Captioned Media Program, has led a number of technological advances, including the development of multiple accessible platforms. He introduced a process that ensures audio description script accuracy during recording and editing and then feeds into an interactive transcript feature.
Congratulations to all the 2024 ADP Award recipients!