Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), also known as real-time or live-event captioning, provides live, individual, in-person captioning services to the deaf and hearing-impaired. CART providers accompany clients to events such as college classes, religious services, doctor’s appointments, weddings, convention speeches and entertainment events, where they use a stenotype machine connected to a laptop computer to translate speech into text for the client to read. CART provides may even translate environmental sounds and cues as needed.
Another option is remote CART, which works in the same way, except the provider does not accompany the client to the event. The provider listens to the event audio via a phone line and transmits the typed captions to the client via an Internet connection. Due to his or her location, a remote CART provider is not able to document environmental sounds or cues as accurately as an in-person CART provider.
Whether in-person or remote, CART providers typically work freelance on a contract basis.
