Confessions of a Television Captioner

By Jessica Bewsee for Yahoo!Accessibility

September 2010

WANTED: Committed, type-A personality with nerves of steel, patience, and an extensive knowledge of politics, history, pop culture, literature and sports. This is not the beginning of a bad personal ad but rather an ideal job description for a stenocaptioner whose job is to close-caption programs like the evening news, sports games, and awards shows for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Stenocaptioners are trained court stenographers. I worked both in a courtroom and took depositions for two years before I switched to captioning. While there are many reasons why a court stenographer decides to switch from the legal field to broadcast captioning, for me it was because I didn't like spending eight hours a day in a courtroom and then going home and producing a legal transcript. I like instant results, and seeing my captions come up on a television screen less than a second after I press my steno keyboard is very satisfying to me.

I work in a fast-paced environment where every day brings new and exciting challenges. There's no such thing as a typical day for a stenocaptioner, but some days are quieter than others. On a quiet day, I start my shift by reading news websites. I look for unfamiliar names and spellings and enter them into my special steno dictionary so that I am prepared for the show I'm going to caption. I caption live programs about four hours a day, and spend my remaining time doing more research or editing files of shows I've already captioned. When I edit my files I look for errors I've made in writing (my fingers hit the wrong keys of my steno machine) and I add new words to my shorthand dictionary. No matter how prepared I am, usually a proper name gets mentioned that I have not heard of. For instance, a news anchor tells us that a new drug is coming on the market that will help aid in weight loss. When the anchor says the name and I don't have that word in my special dictionary, the captions look like gibberish on the television screen. Once I add that word to my dictionary, the next time the drug is mentioned the captions will be accurate.

A busy day usually means there is a breaking news story. One moment I'll be sitting in my office editing one of my files and suddenly the phone will ring and my broadcast coordinator will come running in and tell me that a news station is about to "go live." I have to put aside anything else I've been doing and go "on the air," which means that my computer dials into a modem, I start writing on my steno machine, my steno strokes are translated into English by my special steno software, and that data is sent through the modem and on to televisions everywhere in less than two seconds. On busy days like this, there's almost no time to do anything except caption- news coverage runs all day and so do I.

Many times people will say to me, "Wow, you must type really fast!" While my typing speed is about 75 words a minute, that's not fast enough to follow even a normal speaking voice, let alone a reporter trying to tell us in less than 30 seconds what happened in Afghanistan today. This is why machine shorthand is the ideal way in which to caption the spoken word.

Stenography is a phonetic language. Unlike typing- where each key on the QWERTY keyboard is pressed individually- stenographers use a steno machine and press multiple keys at the same time based on the amount of syllables in the word. On a typewriter, the word "Afghanistan" would be 11 keys pressed individually. In steno that would be four movements of the hands with multiple keys depressed at once. It looks like this:

AF/PWHRAPB/IS/STAPB

Because Afghanistan is a word that comes up frequently in the news, stenos create what are called "brief forms." Every steno has different brief forms. For me that means Afghanistan is written AFZ- three keys depressed simultaneously and one movement of my hands. My specialized software then translates AFZ back into English and on to the television screen where viewers read "Afghanistan."

Shortening words and even phrases is very important for us, because even though the job requirements are that a stenocaptioner must write at a minimum of 250 words a minute with 99% accuracy, there are still times when a news reporter or a political speech will exceed 250 words a minute. In fact, last week I was captioning a Red Sox post-game show and I was struggling to keep up with Jim Rice's explanation of the game. I looked up at my computer screen and my steno software informed me that I was writing at 380 words a minute!

Although each stenocaptioner has his or her own dictionary and brief forms, the goal is the same for all of us: accuracy. We take our profession seriously. We strive to catch and translate every word we hear and we agonize when we don't succeed. Other stenos and I email each other with strange words that we think might come up in the news the next day. I'm acutely aware that my captions are being watched by deaf and hard-of-hearing people, and I know it's very important to them that I get things right. They want to read what hearing people hear, so it's important for me to be fast and accurate. Sometimes I have to interpret a nuanced phrase or word to make the meaning of a sentence not just readable but understandable. If a news anchor says, "Coming up, have I got a tale for you!" And a picture of a dog is on the screen, someone hearing his tone of voice knows that he's making a pun. A person reading the captions may not. So I have to determine quickly how to caption that sentence in a way that conveys his meaning. My decision: "Coming up, have I got a 'tail' for you!" An exclamation point at the end of a sentence and the homonym in quotes communicate his joke more accurately.

In addition to the main focus of my profession- captioning the spoken word for deaf and hard-of-hearing people- my captions are also read by people in gyms and sports bars. People whose first language is not English have told me they rely on captions to help them learn and understand. I have captions on at my house, too. I find them particularly useful when I'm watching my favorite medical shows that have lots of scientific words.

As with any profession, though, there are drawbacks. It's a physically demanding job. Stenocaptioners can get tendonitis, arthritis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. We have back and shoulder pain from sitting in the same position for hours at a time. I often think I should have a massage therapist on retainer and own stock in a company that makes ibuprofen. The work is also emotionally demanding. I've captioned shows with my eyes closed rather than witness scenes of animal cruelty. I've listened to news reports of 9% unemployment so much that I worry I'm going to walk away from my steno machine and immediately be laid off. And I've watched in horror- over and over and over again- video of the Twin Towers falling. I cannot turn off the television; I can only look away but keep my fingers moving.

Before I became a stenographer I had three requirements for whatever profession I chose: I had to love it, I had to be able to support myself, and I had to help people. Being a stenocaptioner has met all of my personal goals. I've been a captioner for 16 years and I have never wanted to do anything else.

Thanks to Mary Watkins, WGBH

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