By Terri Shirley
HLAAKC’s event, Captioning Panel, held Monday, April 29th, was chock full of surprises and educational for everyone. With all our energy to change the world one idea at a time, we soaked up knowledge and exchanged suggestions between the audience and the expert panelists.
20/20 Captioning & StenoCART – Real-time Captioning
The first panelist, the lovely and interesting Jeanette Christian, Founder & President of 20/20 Captioning & stenoCART, explained her chosen profession of real time captioning, also called Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART). As Jeanette spoke, our attendees never missed a word as conversation was relayed remotely from a captionist located in Raytown.
For all of our speakers that evening, their spoken words translated into typed words behind the speaker on a projector screen. Our audience questions were also transcribed into written words on screen at front of meeting room, behind the speaker. CART can also be displayed on personal electronic devices if projection screen is not available or not desired.
Jeanette engaged our audience with real stories of her work helping the hearing connect with the people who have hearing loss through the use of captioning. She helped a medical student who has very little hearing. Jeanette’s real-time captioning remotely came right into the surgery room. With an iPod hanging from an IV-pole and an iPod hung around an interpreter’s neck, the student could understand the details of the surgery with CART.
If you need TV captioning or CART at work, school, conferences, place of worship, courtroom, graduations, weddings or even funeral services, go to http://www.2020captioning.com/contact for information.
Theater League – Captioning Tablets
Our second panelist, Mark Edelman, Executive Director from Theater League, proudly displayed his new equipment consisting of a sleek thin captioning tablet programmed to display the dialog of actors. Mark also presented a snazzy, new compact stand which the captioning tablet can clamp onto the stand to keep it secure. The captioning tablet is a big upgrade from the older, heavier Mobile Demand device, which sat on a music stand. With the new upgraded system, software is downloaded onto the captioning tablets or your own personal entertainment devices (PED’s), such as iPads, or even smart phones.
There are five captioning tablets available now and soon there will be a total of ten tablets available for each performance. If you would like to spoil yourself with a live Broadway performance, please contact Catherine Cone from Theater League at catherine.cone@theaterleague.org with any questions or for reserving a captioning tablet.
After years of not attending live theater, I am elated to have season tickets for the upcoming year to see Wicked, Sister Act, War Horse, Bring It On and Rat Pack Show. Season tickets are not required to be able to reserve a captioning tablet. Come have some fun at a Broadway performance soon!
Regal Cinema – Sony Entertainment Glasses
The third panelist, JoAnna Mattson, General Manager for Kansas City Regal Cinemas, brought the Sony Entertainment glasses. She discussed the closed captioning features the glasses deliver to movie patrons, even with 3D movies. Many new people in the audience had never seen these stylish devices that can also help those with loss of vision with its audio assist function.
Welcome, Trivia, invisible CAPTIONS & Finale
We had open question and answer time between audience and panelists. We marveled over these high technology devices that help bridge those with hearing loss to enjoy life more fully at the movies, conferences and live theater. During this open time, we learned from listening to our audience and those that actually need captioning. One member introduced us to invisible CAPTIONS, a potential new invention that features glasses that users can wear which could be lightweight and more durable than current captioning products used in the movies.
Coming from the years when captioning was non-existent, to the 1980’s of the Sears Telecaption Adaptor box, to what we experienced that evening at our Captioning Panel was very moving. It is a beautiful thing to have captioning professionals mesh ideas with people who have hearing loss and share in our hopes and dreams for the future.
Thank you Jeanette, Mark, and JoAnna, for taking time to show us your devices and your dedication to our deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Also, I give a special thank you to April Dunlap for interpreting and Emily Goldman of Photos4Good for donating your time to photograph our captioning panel event for our non-profit organization.
Our next social will be Saturday, June 8th from 4-8pm at Shawnee Mission Park, Shelter #8. Please see our Facebook page for details and keep an eye on our emails.
Thank you everyone for joining us!
HLAAKC Committee – Anna, Lucy, Andy, Minda and Terri
HLAA - Kansas City Chapter 
I had to work and could not be present at the 4-29-13 Captioning Panel. However, between your pictures of the event and the CART Transcripts, I feel that I did not miss a thing! Great work and keep this up! I will be there to volunteer for the June 8 HLAA Picnic.
Thank you, HLAA Steering Committee and Captioning Panelists, for the informative and lively discussion of local captioning technology options. My daughter and I enjoyed the presentations!
Shanna Groves / LipreadingMom.com
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