Court reporters used as captioners during Olympics
Court reporting has come a long way since Charles Dickens practiced the craft in 1828, according to Florida Times-Union story published this week. Moving from pen and paper to specialized keyboards that allow court reporters to type more than 225 words per minute, these professionals don't just take down deposition transcripts in real-time, they also provide the captions for many live events and television broadcasts, such as the Olympics.
According to The Daily Record, a local New Jersey paper, court reporters doubling as television captioners has become a major part of the industry.
"We were just flooded with mail afterwards from the deaf community telling us that we captioners were the ones who deserved gold medals for making things like the 'Up Close and Personal' pieces on the athletes accessible to them," National Court Reporters Association director of education Karen Rudd, who worked for the National Captioning Institute during its first work with the Olympics in 1980, told the source. "Captioning was truly the most rewarding work I've ever done in my life."
Court reporter captioning is what allows many individuals, who may not be able to hear what's happening on the television, to be able to still experience the event. Stadium captioning has also taken off as another form of live captioning.
While some broadcasters may choose to use voice recognition to provide their captions, the Times-Union cites that it is unable to distinguish between individuals when several speak at once, nor can the technology discern heavy accents, causing the need for court reporters to increase in live events that may involve individuals with various accents, such as the Olympics.
If broadcasters need help captioning an event or program or if lawyers need the most real-time court reporting, then they should partner with Wisconsin court reporters who can offer these transcribing services.
