"My Experience with Cart"
"It's a Tuesday, and I am leaving my Chemistry 101 class at Western Nevada Community College. Phrases like ionic mixtures and isotopes float in my head. Not long ago, I would have been very reluctant to take this class, because even with a certified interpreter, it's a struggle to catch all the terminology and information I need at times for this class. That is a thing of the past now that I use CART.
CART is a real-time captioning service that provides you with a word for word transcript of what is being said, when it's being said. I was skeptical at first about using it. I like my interpreters, and we work well together. But this semester, there was a conflict in schedule, and I couldn't find a qualified interpreter for the class. So I figured I would give CART a try. It took a while to persuade everyone to let me try it, as it's still a pretty new service and some were unsure of how it would work. But it was worth the wait, though! Now I not only have transcripts of the class, but an excellent resource of notes for studying. And the best thing is that I never miss any of the vocabulary that I need.
Thanks to Captions Unlimited of Nevada, Inc. and the hard work of Denise and Karen, I'm enjoying my chemistry class more than I ever thought possible. If you haven't tried CART yet, give it a try. It's another valuable communication tool!" - Sarah Cale -
Hi Denise, Becky, Stephanie and Shawn,
Thank you again for going so, so, so out of your way to help me out today.
I can't tell you how appreciative I am to have all four of you today by my side today.
Overwhelming tears are pouring out as I'm keying this. This past year has been
very difficult as I am learning my new profession. Having the full access to
communication today, I've learned so much and most of them would have helped
me months ago at my job. Again, my sincere appreciation to you.
Warmly,
Jana
Managing a global team for MSN with staff located around the world, working on a dynamic new product launch with tight schedules can be tough at the best of times, and due to the captioning service, being deaf has not impacted my ability to communicate and reach out to my team. The captioning service is just fantastic, delivers real time captions directly to my laptop so that I can see who is saying what as they say it. Over a short period of time, Denise, the captioner, has learned all of our Microsoft acronyms! The whole team can log in and use the service and love that they get a transcript after the event, a very accurate blow by blow account of the meeting. The captioning service has really provided a fantastic service for the group and I personally feel empowered to deliver great things as a result.
Jenny Lay-Flurrie
Director adCenter support
"Thanks for another great year of service" - Susan Church, University of New England
Verbatims after the first use:
‘I must admit it's the first time I've used it and I'm really impressed.’
‘I'm sold on the concept.’
You know that I’m a huge advocate of technology – it makes my life just so much easier, and my team also love it globally.
Mylene -
KUDOS to the captioning team and to the MSR streaming network team -- for the job they did for a lecture I attended at MSR yesterday. Right from the beginning, Shawn McCusker at Captions Unlimited and Dave Crosier at MSR responded to my special request with "Sure, we haven't done that before, but we'll try to make it happen!". The whole setup involved some extraordinary effort, and both Shawn's team and Dave's team jumped in with no hesitation. Both teams followed up during the lecture, too, confirming that all was working well. Finally, the transcriber (Mark), had a challenging job (fast speaker, lots of jargon and unusual vocabulary, etc) and I don't think he missed a single word…
I am, once again, stunned by the whole-hearted effort that our collective team makes to ensure that ALL employees have full access to the resources the company provides us.
Thank you, thank you
Becky Montgomery
Yesterday for my Mom's graveside service, Denise of Captions Unlimited was set to CART the event. The chief problem was this was a graveside service in the middle of a cemetery, no buildings, no phone lines. Obstacles that were difficult but not insurmountable.
I have a laptop, so that was no problem. I also have a Treo and the software to use the Treo as a cell phone modem. I'd never used the software before but was going to make it work. A friend suggested a Bluetooth (wireless) connection between the laptop and the Treo would work best, so off to Circuit City for a USB dongle to do that.
For the audio line (so Denise could hear) we had a 2nd cell phone, we borrowed a Bluetooth headset from a friend and we were set.
Sunday we went to the cemetery to test everything, the data connection worked flawlessly, after some experimenting we found the best results were to have the cell phone on speakerphone. We got everything working perfecto.
Tuesday arrived and the big day, as we had everything working before, I figured 30 mins would be adequate to setup. As it was, everything that can go wrong did, the data connection wouldn't come up, the sun washed out the laptop screen and then just when we thought we had it working, it died. (all was not lost, the pastor gave me a transcript) time had run out and the service was starting; the audio line was up throughout and Denise was able to send me some stuff I missed afterwards.
Some things we learned:
The audio line worked excellent, Denise was able to hear most/all of the service.
Allow at least an hour for setup, cuz if something can break, it will
Bring a big umbrella and table for the laptop.
With some ingenuity, lots of impossible things are possible.
A hearing person to help set this all up is pretty much a must, especially when you need to make sure the audio is working.
Thanks again
Pete
We appreciate you and look forward to working with you again.
Also - please note we'd like you to come back on Saturday, May 9, 2009 to caption ceremonies @ 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Thank you very much for your most capable work!
LH
I am thrilled at how things have worked out with our CART Services and am happy to hear that the folks that I have recommended you to have made contact with you. I continue to sing your praises! Although our deaf group at this CART church has not grown, I am hopeful in time that it will.
Thanks for all you do---I look forward to working with you throughout this new year.
God bless,
Mary