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Synopsis/Definition

The term CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) or live captioning/transcription refers to the mechanism allowing a person with different hearing issues to see captions during a live event, such as a student team meeting, news report, or sports broadcast.

Benefits

  • Live captioning allows people who are hard of hearing or deaf to fully understand an event’s content in real time. They can fully participate in the event, including asking questions about the content.
  • A transcript can usually be saved for later review by any viewer as needed.
  • Live captioning can benefit hearing participants in a virtual meeting room if there are audio issues, non-native speakers of English, or a person who missed a phrase.
  • The live captions can also help any viewer with spelling of new vocabulary or a name.

Penn State Policy

Information on captioning requirements is provided in the Captioning Decision Tree & Workflow (Login Required) which covers both synchronous live captions during an event or post-production captions within a recording. The document “is designed to provide the University with a consistent workflow, decision tree and resources to help units fulfill their Live and Postproduction captioning needs.”

Approved Vendors

Live Services (Remote)

Penn State Purchasing includes a list of approved vendors for live captioning.

Certification

Any in-person live captioner who provides support for Penn State educational programming must be certified through the National Court Reporters Association (www.ncra.org)

Enable Zoom Caption Window

See information on the Penn State Zoom Accessibility page.

ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) Tools and Services

Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) services provide live captioning/transcript resources do NOT meet the DHH accommodation requirements. However, transcripts/captions can be edited if a recording will be posted later.

Free Tools

For Fee

Event Set Up

When organizing an event, you should think about these details. (See the Live Caption White Paper for more detailed recommendations):

Registration System

We recommend using a registration system or information page which lets participants request live captions or other accommodations ahead of time. This lets if you know whether live captions are needed for a particular event. If no live captions are needed, then you can just caption videos after the event if recordings are posted.

Example Registration Text

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact <name or unit> at email@psu.edu or call <phone number> at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Microphones and Audio Quality

Ensure that microphones for the event are working and fully charged. It is important to be sure the audio quality is sufficient for the captionist. High quality recordings also help if captions after the event are needed.

Access for Captioners

Will the captioner be in same room or somewhere else? If the captionist is remote, can they log in to or access the streaming or conference system? Information about live captions setup for Zoom is available at Zoom Captions and Live Captions (Penn State KB Article KB0016348)

Recording for Later

If a live event has been recorded and the live caption transcription file archived, it is possible to convert the transcription to a closed caption file. Results based on a recording should always be checked for accuracy before being posted.

Last Update: August 10, 2023

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