Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) reporters face many challenges in their attempts to serve the deaf and hearing impaired community. While it is not intentional, it is often misunderstood how difficult little things can make it for a court reporter to provide an accurate and helpful transcription for their client in a meeting, church, classroom, courtroom or legal deposition. There may be background noise, poor acoustics or lighting issues that prevent the court reporter from hearing the proceedings or the client from seeing. The words are taken down by a CART or court reporter on a special stenotype machine, then automatically translated into English, electronically transmitted and displayed on a laptop or large screen.

Visuals

By allowing the court reporter and client to sit close to the speaker near the front of the room, the CART professional will be able to see the speaker’s lips and hear their voice. This improves accuracy, speed and understanding. When more than one or two people are using the CART services, a projection screen or large laptop will make it less cumbersome for the clients to see and understand the transcription. Don’t turn out the lights. Imagine trying to type and read in the dark. If it is absolutely necessary to cut lighting to black, provide a useful nightlight for the CART reporter.

Microphone

Use a microphone and, if possible, an audio feed in a large room full of people or where there are acoustics issues. Missing even one word due to excess noise or poor audio can change the entire meaning of a sentence. It can make a notable difference. Imagine leaving the word "not" out of an important explanation. Depending on the topic, it can be catastrophic.

Word List

Providing a word list or script beforehand makes it much easier for the court reporter to be prepared with words that will instantly translate into English. The words are taken down on a stenotype machine. They are recorded sound by sound and syllable by syllable. Names of people, departments and cities that may be mentioned should be provided on this list. Include industry buzzwords that are not used in everyday conversation. Words that do not translate will appear on the screen in steno and, to the untrained eye, a jumble of letters, slashes and dashes.

If it is medical or technical, be sure to alert the court reporting agency ahead of time so that they may send someone with experience in these matters when possible. For any type of CART assignment, providing a word list or script at least the day before will allow the professional to do their necessary "homework" for the client so that they can have a clean transcription that is helpful and makes sense. This way, the professional stenographer can enter them into the steno translation dictionary to appear properly on the screen in English.