Everything You Wanted to Know About CART Writing - Part Five

By Cheryl Heppner

Editor: The folks at NVRC recently hosted (along with the local HLAA and ALDA chapters) a panel of CART experts to provide the latest information on this crucial technology. Cheryl did her usual outstanding job of writing it up and sharing it with interested folks. Here's her report. You are welcome to share this information, but please be sure to credit NVRC.

This is part five of eleven parts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April 2008

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Lise Hamlin:

Here is the last prepared question. Chuck has already given a bit of the answer. To preface it a little bit, I find that sometimes when I am watching the CART, there is an interruption or something. It becomes clear that the CART writer can't really hear what's going on, but I won't know that until after the words either start to not appear. I can't know what the CART person hears.

In some cases I've seen the CART writer stop and ask for something to be repeated, and in some cases I've seen the CART writer wait for permission from the client. The question is, does your agency have a policy up front that says what a writer will do when he or she can't hear the proceedings? And if so, do you communicate that policy to the client up front?

Chuck Motter:

I think that the basic thing you need to know is that, as Chris said, communication is essential between you as the CART writer. Ideally what would happen is that you would have that conversation up front. If I were the CART provider I would say to you, "I see my role as being one of accommodation, and I am going to follow your lead. Tell me what you would like me to do in this situation." I would be proactive about that sort of thing.

That's not always possible to do, because you walk into a situation where you immediately have to sit down and you've not met the person or you may not even be aware of who the client is. Many times we'll be asked to provide service, and we don't know for whom we are providing that service. And just as likely we'll go in, provide the service for someone we're expecting to, and then we'll have five or six other people come up and say, "I'm sure glad you were here because I have a hearing loss and that was very helpful."

I recognize that it can be sensitive for people to reveal that sort of information. We do not have a policy, but it's a good point, and one that I should take back and probably develop. But as I say, we rely on the communication between the person providing and the person receiving the accommodation to try to take care of as much of that as we can up front.

Chris Gaskill:

Again, communication is key there. We don't have a particular policy. I guess it makes sense, but I think that's the sort of thing that you want to be on a case-by-case basis. You want the communication between the CART user and the CART provider. It has to be a relationship for the user to get the most out of it as they possibly can. We want it to be a worthwhile experience. That's why we're there. So we need the feedback.

Karen McConnell:

Well I have to say it depends because I've been in situations in the classroom where I had one student that didn't want anyone to know that he was deaf. If I sat on the other side of the room or in the back of the room, that would have been perfect. But sometimes he would turn up his hearing aid so loud that it would start making noises. I would tell him that, but he never acknowledged me when I was in the classroom. He would sit somewhere else, put a computer in front of him just like all of the other students.

In that case I would definitely not interrupt. If I am in a situation where I've worked with the person a lot, then I'll tell them on breaks. I'll say, "You have to speak up. You have to slow down." I'll do whatever I can. And sometimes I will write the person who I am working for, the customer, I will write them a note and say, "These people are talking way too fast", and it depends on the situation. In a big group of scientists, you do not want to be interrupting them. So you make it clear up front how it's going to be.

I was in court the other day, and in the courtroom, do you not interrupt. They do not like that at all. You have to do whatever goes on in the situation. You have to make it clear ahead of time and you just have to do the best that you can.

Lise Hamlin:

As a customer, but not necessarily the person who hired the CART provider, I'm never sure what permission I'm given to say to the CART provider, "Hey, you know you can interrupt." If I know that I have permission from you to say, "please interrupt if you can't hear," then I have to first wait for to you hear, or not to hear, before I know what's happening.

We're going to take a break now unless to get more questions from the audience, who have been listening to this all morning and thinking about their own questions. So is there anything you would like to say?

Chuck Motter:

I just thought about one other thing because I was told, by a show of hands, there are educators in the room or people associated in the schools who may be interested in that arena. One thing that came to mind was the preparation for integrating this service in your school, and how that communication needs to take place between the office of student disabilities and the CART writer.

One thing that happens to me, and I am sure it has happened to Karen, too, in the classroom, is people who are hearing will come up to me and say, "Oh, is there a transcript? Can I get that transcript from you?" And I've been offered some fairly nice cash for those transcripts, too.

Those are the kinds of things that as an educational institution you need to be aware of, and set up the rules and parameters for up front. Not only are you going to agree to provide the transcript to those for whom the accommodation is being provided, but obviously we would not provide it to the entire classroom. Even that provision you need to make clear to us. Are we entitled to release it to the student? Does it go through you? Are there no transcripts available at all? There are all sorts of ethical, professional decisions to be made about whether the transcript provides an unfair advantage to a student who has a hearing loss over and above the hearing students.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

~~~~~