Anyone who requests live captions or CART (communication access in realtime) for an educational or training context, knows the pain points of (1) defining your hearing issues (2) explaining what CART is, and its benefits (3) arranging its provision and (4) establishing who actually pays for it.
One blogger, Chelle George, describes in detail the hoops through which she jumped, to access captions for a writer’s workshop she wanted to attend.
First, she wrote to the community college office; here is the letter:
Read: Letter For Accommodation
Copying-In On Email
Weeks after the office acknowledged her letter, there was no update on her request. Chelle emailed the college office, copying the college’s disability centre to explain that FM did not give her 100% access to dialogue:
Read: Requesting CART, again
Eventually, the college called Chelle in to discuss the course and after some ‘face’ contact, CART was arranged for her upcoming course.
Read: CART Success
Facilitation should be easier to arrange than this, particularly with a growing number of people who don’t use sign language. The ‘burden’ of advocacy is often cited – however, colleges and staff will become more informed as more young deaf students request facilitation for their own courses.
More Reading
- California Student Seeks Real-Time Captions Instead of FM
- Good Acoustics In Schools Make Learning Easier
- Survival Insights For Students, Educators And Staff
- Classroom Captions Entrenching In The UK And US
- Learning Modern Languages At School
- Newstalk: “What Is It Like To Go Deaf Overnight?”
- Student Legal Cases For Captions Almost Settled
- Lip-Reading Challenges In The Hearing World
