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From: Jack.O'keeffe@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Jack O'keeffe)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Technophilia-induced problem at Educom?
Message-ID: <15254@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 30 Oct 90 04:26:14 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

 MR> I've seen a talk where real-time transcription was provided by
 MR> court stenographers.  They used a version of a stenotype machine
 MR> coupled to display software. . . . . . . . .  In the talk I saw,
 MR> some software provided partial on-the-fly cleanup, but no where
 MR> near perfect.

Real time captioning of several sessions at the SHHH Little Rock
convention was done by American Data Captioning (CaptionAmerica)
of Pittsburgh.  They also do captioning for NBC and others.  The
arrangement was the best I've seen.  A TV camera at the rear of the
room videographed the speaker's face, and this was projected on a
large screen at the front to facilitate speechreading.  Captions
were keyed on a stenotype machine by Joe Karlovits (one of the
partners in CaptionAmerica), translated into something very close
to English on a small computer, and projected across the bottom of
the screen.

The translation gaffes occured when encountering words that were
not in the computer's translation dictionary.  Proper names and
place names are frequently garbled, but this can easily be overcome
if the caption recorder is given a list beforehand to add to the
dictionary.  Technical terms are another likely source of error.

There have been a few really classic errors that rank right up
there with the "REPUBLICANS / RUBBLE CANS" from the Jimmy Carter
talk.  These happen regularly, even on the networks.

Our visually impaired friends should appreciate one I saw where
"RUMBLINGS" became "RUM BLINKS".  But currently in first place
in the gaffe hall of fame is one I viewed within the past week.
The word "ABHORRENT" was transmuted to caption as "AB WHORE RENT".

 MR> Another reader comments that an ASL translator would be
 MR> preferable.

I cannot agree with that, since such a miniscule segment of the
population, even of the deaf population, is fluent in ASL.

 MR> My own take is that for technical talks this real-time
 MR> transcription seems better able to catch technical vocabulary.

There is one other mildly disconcerting aspect, at least for the
speaker.  During my talk at Little Rock, I tried as always to
establish eye contact with members of the audience which included
many speechreaders.  Try as I might, they were all looking up and
off to the left - not directly at me.  Eventually I realized they
were not watching me, but were watching my video image on the big
screen with the captions underneath.

... Jack.

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