Need Some Advice

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kathy

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I'm a NJ court reporter very interested in the possibility of captioning. This is a very tough thing to do, but I've been working on my realtime reporting skills.
In NJ a court reporter must be licensed (the test has a lower pass rate than the bar!), and many fail. I've been doing this for 18 years. The State decided 3 years back to make continuing education mandatory for us.
Here's my problem. The state may not re-issue my license. I believe under the guidelines I have completed my cont. ed. requirements, they disagree.
One of the things I did was run a program for 3 years at my church where I captioned the services. Many folks are late-deafened and really liked to be able to understand the preacher man. According to the state regs, developing a program is worth 10 points for my cont. ed.
The board doesn't want to recognize what I did. Of course, I could get credit for more English courses, but I already know the diff between affect & effect. I would get points for taking a seminar on realtime reporting -- why not for utilizing what I learned already in 2 previous seminars????? Seems to me there are lots of ADA-compliant lawsuits and the FCC wants captioning, etc., etc. Where are the captioners going to come from?????
I need to make an argument to the Board that my captioning program was a valid program. Frankly, as a court reporter I'm sick of taking testimony about children being molested, fatal car accidents, etc. I thought I was doing something positive with my skills. I don't want to lose my license NOR do I want them to tell me I have to do something else. I want them to recognize that captioning is a real need and court reporters should be encouraged and REWARDED WITH POINTS for doing it. Like I said, it's a difficult thing to do. Harder than learning the diff. between affect & effect.
I'm mad, but I have to be careful when I fight City Hall.
Any advice (except for sue them!!! LOL!) welcome.
- Kathy
 
I cannot live without these captioners
they are extremely valuable
I do appreciate them very much !

This is so difficult .. I actually do not know
how to advise this time...
I need some time to think
and figure this out. Have you ever
talk with Donna Sorkin who seem like
a strong advocate and/or
anyone at NCI (National Captioning Institute)
about this situation ?
 
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Need Advice

Y,
Thank you very much for your input. Donna Sorkin is unfamiliar to me. I have met with Esther Kelly, officer and past pres. of a Texas chapter of SHHH, and she's an author and is employed at the Deaf Learning Center in Plano.
I've been honest on these posts -- captioning is scary for the reporter. Sounds dumb, but we are terrified of making mistakes because they are so obvious and because we are DRILLED NOT to make errors (one must have a 95% to pass the NJ exam. 94, and you fail)
I'm not a captioner -- it's just something I may be interested in doing. Sure beats hearing the horror stories in court. I would have been given credit for taking seminars in realtime reporting. The problem is, I've already taken TWO seminars for that. But I took them BEFORE it was mandatory to have continuing ed. But supposedly there are credits given for "developing a program." But "program" is not clearly defined. I saw it as a great opportunity for a practical application of the 2 seminars I had already taken.
Heck -- I can now write words like Leviticus and Deutaronomy! (and I spell them correctly, just being lazy right now). Those words never came up in court!!!!
What I really need is HOH who would be willing to write to the State board of NJ and urge them to consider giving credits for those attempting to caption for the HOH in a setting where it hasn't been offered before -- like a local church or hospital or school or something!!!
And thanks for appreciating captioners.
- Kathy
 
That would be a very commendable thing to do, Kathy....btw, Deutaronomy is not the correct spelling, lol! Anyway, a question: Why just the HoH? Best wishes to you.
 
Need Advice

Tousi,
Sigh. I used to be a really good speller -- but court reporting actually ruins that. We write kat and, believe it or not, tkaug is the way we spell dog!! I know ASL is considered a separate language -- the our way of writing is like a different language.
Why just the HoH? Hmm....I don't know!! Mostly I guess because the HoH understand the NEED for captioners more than the hearing do. Not that the hearing are insensitive -- we're not. But the exposure just isn't there. The hearing need to be reminded that others don't hear.
I'm lefthanded. Not a handicap at all, but I'm a minority. Have to remind my family often that I'm lefthanded -- especially when fighting over seating at the Thanksgiving table!!!
Some things are simply overlooked with no malice, no insensitivity.
I think the HoH would be more effective.
- Kathy
 
Kathy, thanks for the clarification on the HoH part. Actually, within the deaf culture, HoH means hard-of-hearing and then there's all varying degrees of deafness all the way to stone deafness. As a HoH person I don't have as much dependance on captioning but the deaf do rely on it entirely--see the difference? Come to think of it, I am hooked on captioning, too, as it is just easier on me and I just utilize the HoH part of me for the music and other sound effects and not so much for the dialogue. Hope this helps; I am sure there will be other posters to follow for your edification on this subject. Again, best wishes to you....
 
Captions can be typed on a large screen.

Hi Kathy,
They have captions machines that can print on large screens.
I've seen it done at the Deaf Expo.
Its not cheap but, if deaf people are at convention or an event, and they can't see the interpreter or they don't have one they can request that service.
Margie
 
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