According to the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), there are approximately 28 million people in the United States with some degree of hearing loss. This number includes persons who were born physically deaf, became deaf at a given point in their lives, or are HOH (hard of hearing). No social or political class in the U.S. is void of deaf culture, and the goals and motivations of adult deaf learners can be equated with those of androgogy in that they are based on the individual. Deaf learners are present in our colleges, universities, and workplaces and they deserve equal learning opportunities.
CART stands for Communication Access Real-Time translation. Former court reporters access the audio of educational classes or business conferences through a phone line or over the internet. While listening to what’s being said, CART providers simultaneously translate the audio word for word with just a two second delay. They are able to translate so quickly by using a form of shorthand on a stenograph machine and special software.
The end product is a full screen of text delivered over the internet displaying word for word translation of the spoken word into text. It is much faster to say what you have to say than write it, so “in real-time interactions, at the speed of thought, we prefer to talk rather than write." (Dror, Harnad, 20) CART is the only service that can offer deaf learners a word for word, 99% accurate representation of spoken audio in real time.
View a streaming text demonstration from leading CART provider Caption First here:
http://www.streamtext.net/text.aspx?event=NetcaptionDemonstration
CART technology is internet based, and therefore portable; it can be used in conjunction with conference calling, game networking, live web casts, online radio shows, and even You Tube videos. Text is streamed to televisions, video screens, projectors, PCs, laptops, and even handheld devices like smart phones. Live CART can actually be merged with most synchronous learning platforms already in place in corporate and university environments. For example, a caption pod can be integrated to stream live real time text from remote locations over the internet within Wimba, Elluminate, Blackboard, Adobe Connect, and Second Life, as well as conferencing systems like WebEx, WebCT, and IDEAL conferencing to name a few.
Reference
Dror, I. E., & Harnad, S. (2008). Offloading cognition onto cognitive technology. In I. Dror & S. Harnad (Eds.), Cognition distributed: How cognitive technology extends our minds (pp. 1-23). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing.
