The Collective was enlisted to produce expanded audio description for a series of short documentaries and social media shorts promoting research at national parks. The National Park Service partnered with the Center for Environmental Filmmaking for the films, which were made by graduate students in collaboration with Park Service staff. Topics ranged from trail camera tracking to peregrine falcon conservation to consulting tiny macroinvertebrates as monitors of water quality. Check here later for links to more work. A few to get you started in the meantime are below!
Be sure to select AD on the video player to see the extended films with audio description. Closed Captions only play with the undescribed films.
National Parks in the History of Science: Visibility. Is there a scientific way to measure and monitor changes in the clarity of our air? Atmospheric physicists figured that out starting in the 1970s in the Grand Canyon.
Dry Tortugas National Park: Island of Discovery. Seventy miles off Key West, Florida, these islands hosted America’s first tropical marine laboratory from 1904-1939. Their utility is still to be seen in the clear water, the diversity of habitats, and the abundance of life.
Timber Rattlesnakes: Mothers. A short celebration of the underappreciated maternal side of timber rattlesnakes, as well as the life’s work of rattlesnake expert W. H. Martin, who died shortly before the film was released.
Nearly the whole collective participated in this project! Nefertiti Matos Olivares: blind QC and narrator. Thomas Reid: blind QC, narrator, and audio editor. Robert Kingett: blind QC. Barbara Faison: narrator, final QC. Kensuke Nakamura: final QC. Cheryl Green: project lead, writer, narrator, audio editor, and final QC. Oliver Baker: writer and final QC.
Social Audio Description Collective 