Everything You Wanted to Know About CART Writing - Part 11

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 eleven of eleven parts.

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Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Attendee:

I retired from the Federal Government two years ago, working in the disability and rehabilitation research area. The last set of questions touched on several of the points I wanted to ask. But I will follow along on that theme of technology and the direction that we're going.

First of all, I would like to say I've been listening for part of this meeting with my hearing aids set on telecoil, and it makes a big difference for me. I am wondering if you as CART reporters sometimes use earphones and assistive listening system for environmental purposes, to help with your accuracy? That's the first question. And then the second question, several of you have spoken of dictionaries, and of the ways that specialized terminology can be facilitated. What's happening in that area, and what can we expect to help us improve both the speed and accuracy?

Karen McConnell:

Oh, the headphones. I just did a great big Mayo Clinic conference, with probably 3,000 people there, and the first thing that I did when I went in wasy to say, "Do you have an assistive listening device?" And they always do. I wear that thing, because when people start clapping, and a lot of times they play real loud music in the room, I am mic'ed right into the speakers. My work is so much better when I do that. And I think that it's really a good thing to do.

Chuck Motter:

I agree. Sometimes you don't want to be on those headphones because you hear the speaker go up there and say, "Would you look at that lady on the front row and what she's got on?" So we do have to exercise judgment about what actually gets put on the screen and what doesn't. But I, like Karen, have asked for a ALD. I like to be right into the sound board of whatever audio system they're using, which the ALD is, and that's one way to access it. We are much better able to provide high-quality service that way. I assure you that Mike is sitting in his home studio right now with headphones on over the phone lines as well.

Regarding the speed and accuracy of what the dictionary software is doing, if we're CART providers, we're on the cutting edge of the technology. This means we know which software to be using, which one is going to be most responsive to us, and which one is the most progressive in terms of improving the accuracy and the speed with which we can deliver CART. There are software vendors for us that are more progressive, and some that are not so progressive. I would say that anyone that we work with is going to be on those more progressive ones. We're using every technology that we can to make the service better for you.

Lise Hamlin:

We have a question someone wrote on a card. Do you provide remote or realtime for high school classes? And how is it working if you do?

Chris Gaskill:

I don't know of any situations where we've provided remote coverage for high school classes. Alderson tries to stay away from remote just because we like the personal one-on-one situation. And like I said earlier, a lot of the classrooms are not mic'ed as this room is where you will end up with as polished a product.

Chuck Motter:

We're not presently providing for any high schools, but I have in the past. The only thing that I can tell you is that I have learned to write the word "like" about every three words. And "you know what I'm saying?" And "you know what I mean?" And "dude."

Lise Hamlin:

One last question on a card. "I've noticed that CART writers around the D.C. area rarely provide information about sounds other than speech like laughter, applause, door slamming, that kind of thing. Do you find that to be true? If so, why do you think that's true?"

Karen McConnell:

I think that you write as much as you can. If someone is speaking at 300 words a minute, I am not going to put a [sound] parenthetical in. But if I have time to put it in, I will try to do it. If there is lightning and thunder outside and booming and things going on, I will try to let them know in the room what is going on. Or if somebody is doing some weird thing, I'll write a note to the person or the group and say what's happening. I think that you do as much as you can, and I think that you should.

Chuck Motter:

I wholeheartedly agree with that. Again, it's a communication thing. If you, Lise come to me and say "that's distracting and I don't want that," I will follow that. But if we have not had that conversation, I view my role as providing you, as a person with a hearing loss, the same experience as the person who is hearing has. So if there's a person behind you whose cell phone is continuously ringing, and everyone is turning around or diverting their attention to that person, you may look at me and, go "What's the big deal? Why is everybody turning around?" And I can sort of head off some of those things by just putting a parenthetical that says "cell phone ringing" so that you know why people are looking someplace other than the speaker.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

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