CART For Hearing
Dwight Johnson
Semi Retired at Dwight Johnson Author, Creation Science and Biblical Archeology Ministry
CART stands for Communication Access Real-time Translation. It may also be referred to as real-time captioning. It is used by hard of hearing and deaf people who use English as their first language and/or their language of instruction. Most often, the hard of hearing or deaf person can voice for him or herself (expressive communication) and uses CART to understand what others are saying, especially in meetings, classrooms or large events (receptive communication).
A captioner (CART provider) uses a court reporting stenography machine, a computer and software to display everything that is being said, word for word. The text is displayed on a computer, television or projection screen. A captioner will come to your event for onsite CART services. For remote CART services, the captioner is offsite and the text appears on the computer or screen at your location.
I have used the CART system in several of my speeches at the local chapter of Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) and at the national convention when I spoke about multigenerational concepts called ‘What are the Generations Hearing?’ I had a blast speaking at these organizations because I saw that the CART System works when I would get several questions from the audience and as soon as they asked the question, they would then turn to the screen at the front of the room to read my answer to their question.
Being one sided deaf and having a Cochlear Baha on my right side, I find myself reading from the CART System. My wife and I attended a performance of West Side Story where they had both CART open and closed captioning system. Open captioning is when everyone can read the caption. The closed caption system is when only the person holding a device or wear special captioning glasses. I found out that all movie theaters must provide these system for hard of hearing/deaf people by law as of June 1, 2018.
So if you have a hard of hearing/deaf person in your life let them know that they can request a CART System so they can enjoy a movie or a theater event.