by Joan Andrews
It is difficult for me, profoundly hard of hearing, to imagine functioning effectively in a classroom without the benefit of realtime captioning. This mode of accommodation far surpasses any other that I have experienced because it is the one and only method that conveys to me verbatim the instructor's and my classmates' words. Realtime professionals also can include brief descriptions that provide information about the mood of the person speaking -- excited, despairing, angry, heated, placating; signals that the hearing students access easily and which often guide them in choosing their responses to the dialogue taking place. These bits of information play a vital role in effective classroom participation.
An experienced realtime professional captioned a course in Shakespeare's plays for me. The vocabulary was difficult and the professor was a rapid speaker. Without realtime it would have been impossible for me to gain any benefit from the course. In addition to completing the course, I became a fan of Shakespeare's work, an asset I will enjoy throughout my life.
Notetaking is far behind realtime in accuracy and content, particularly since note takers must eliminate many words due to the rapidity of speech. Unless well educated in the subject at hand, there is always a risk that the note takers' omissions contain pertinent information the student must have.
I urge you to make realtime available to all Miami-Dade hearing-impaired students. Their education and position within the class are in jeopardy without it.
If you have had an experience with captioning or CART that you would like to share, please e-mail it to Peter Wacht, pwacht@ncrahq.org, or mail it to his attention at NCRA, 8224 Old Courthouse Road, Vienna, VA 22312.