The Audio Description Project
An Initiative of the American Council of the Blind
Formerly AD International
Audio description at a museum, park, or exhibit is not the same as an audio tour or a docent-lead tour. Audio description has a different focus: describing the actual object, rather than addressing its creator or history, for example. A true audio description tour of a museum would actually assist in leading you from exhibit to exhibit, and the emphasis would be on size, shape, color, texture, detail. If you are lucky, you will be allowed to touch some of the objects on display, but you should not expect this accommodation.
For an example of museum description, see our page on Audio Description of a Museum Painting.
Not many museums or parks offer audio described tours. Here are the ones we know about. Unless mentioned, there is no assurance these tours are any different from regular audio tours, but they have been reported by patrons who are blind. Let us know about ones in your area so we can list them! UPDATED JANUARY 2013 -- THANK YOU, CONTRIBUTORS!
See also Performing Arts
Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure is offering an audio description handheld device for select attractions. A $100 refundable deposit is required to borrow the equipment from Guest Relations. View an article in the Orange County Register. Read an article about the latest (July 2011) additions.
The International Spy Museum offers an audio described tour.
The
White House offers an audio tour, which features welcoming remarks
from Mrs. Obama followed by a room-by-room audio description of the
highlights and features of the White House. The audio tour must be
requested at the time the tour reservation is made through a member of
Congress, at least 21 days in advance.
Read the Press
Release! 
January 2013
Walt Disney World/EPCOT is offering an audio description handheld device for select attractions (pictured above under California). A $100 refundable deposit is required to borrow the equipment from Guest Relations. Read the Disney announcement, or view an article in the Orlando Sentinel. There is also audio description for outdoor attractions: read the WGBH Media Access announcement.
The Arizona Memorial offers sighted guide assistance and includes a special unit that can be borrowed to assisted blind users enjoy the tour. The USS Bowfin Submarine Museum offers audio self tours (no hands on), but they are not safe for a blind person alone.
Audio Description Illinois, Alliance Library System, provides audio description of digital images for libraries in their system. www.alsaudioillinois.net.
The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History has had docents trained to give tours to patrons who are blind.
In New York City, most of the major museums offer monthly programs oriented to people who are blind. For example: MOMA (Museum of Modern Art, where Francesca Rosenberg runs the program), Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum, The Guggenheim, and the Rubin Museum of Art (verbal description and touch tours second Tuesdays of each month). Art Education for the Blind's Art Beyond Sight is very influential and active in organizing these programs and working with other museums. Contact individual museums for program information.
Whitney Verbal Description and Touch Tours: As
the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States, the
Whitney Museum of
American Art presents the full range of twentieth-century and
contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living
artists.
Explore the Whitney's permanent collection or special exhibitions with a
highly skilled museum educator trained to provide vivid, detailed
description of the works on display. Visitors are also able to
experience a selection of works through touch. Whitney Verbal
Description and Touch Tours provide an opportunity for visitors who are
blind or have low vision to experience the richness and diversity of
twentieth- and twenty-first-century American art. These ninety minute
tours are free and are held monthly as well as by request with three
weeks advance notice. To place a request, inquire about the next
scheduled tour, or sign up for our email list, please contact Whitney at
accessfeedback@whitney.org or (212) 570-7789. The Whitney
Museum is located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street.
Other sites of interest would include the Statue of Liberty and the African Burial Ground, a National Monument, which has "an audio component for the sight and/or hearing impaired."
The Country Music Hall of Fame and The Hermitage in Nashville both offer hand-held audio devices.
