MyLegal.com Contributed Articles

Sandra German, a seasoned court reporter, was kind enough to take time away from her very busy schedule to share her experiences in the broadcast captioning and CART world.

MyLegal.com: Sandra, can you give us a brief rundown of your experience in the court reporting and captioning profession?

Sandra German: I graduated with Honours from the Court Reporting Program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1979 (NCRA’s only accredited court reporting school in Canada). I began my career freelancing, and then became an Official and Chief Court Reporter of the busiest, per capita, Judicial District in the Province of Alberta. After having two children, I started my own freelance firm, became a certified software trainer, and also was a guest lecturer and taught at NAIT. In 1990, I became involved with the hard of hearing and deaf communities and pioneered CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) in Alberta and Western Canada. My freelance firm morphed into a CART business, which quickly became very busy in post-secondary educational CART and corporate CART (one-on-one meetings and large audiences). Loving the challenge and diversity of realtime and CART, I moved into broadcast captioning in 2002. I presently broadcast caption full-time and fill in with CART on the side.

MyLegal.com: Can you tell us why you moved from court reporting to captioning?

Sandra German: While I enjoyed the “writing” side of court reporting, I didn’t enjoy the editing/billing/binding, nor the backlog and accompanying situation of never being caught up. I loved the challenge of learning new words and vocabulary and developing and refining my steno theory to make new words translate perfectly in realtime every time, so the transition was natural. The satisfaction I receive providing such a valuable service to very appreciative deaf and hard of hearing consumers makes every single day worthwhile.

MyLegal.com: Can you tell us what types of CART services you have provided over the years?

Sandra German: I have provided on-site CART services at large conventions, at one-on-one meetings, as well as for funerals and weddings. Additionally, I have captioned opening ceremonies to Jumbotrons in large sports stadiums, which were output simultaneously with French translation and American Sign Language. I have captioned corporate events such as centennial celebrations, town hall meetings, dignitary celebrations, inaugurations, installations, anniversaries – both personal and corporate – and several different educational classes. I’ve also been fortunate to provide remote CART services to the northern Arctic, to Ukraine (working with ASL and USL sign language interpreters) and to a student on a school field trip. With the help of audiovisual tech whizzes and modern technology, anything is possible!

MyLegal.com: Sandra, looking back over the many years that you have provided CART and captioning services, what changes do you believe have most impacted either your work or the business as a whole?

Sandra German: Probably the most significant positive changes I’ve noticed have been in the realtime software development. From the early days of dictating my steno notes onto a dictaphone and not initially learning a conflict-free theory, to the amazing technological advancements of the software programs of today in conflict resolution, magic macros, and remote CART, to name a few, we have come a long way.

MyLegal.com: You are a citizen of Canada. Do you caption only Canadian broadcasts, or do you also caption broadcasts in the U.S.?

Sandra German: My primary captioning schedule consists of Canadian broadcasts, but I do caption U.S. programming as well when I can fit it into my schedule. I am often called for emergency and weather coverage when tornados or hurricanes are hitting the Southern U.S, which, of course, never happens in my part of Canada! I diligently maintain two different job dictionaries for Canadian and U.S. spellings, parentheticals, and idiosyncracies.

MyLegal.com: What’s the most difficult part of your job?

Sandra German: I would say the most difficult part of my job is consistently writing high-quality captions at breakneck speeds and always being at the top of my game - but this is also the most exciting part of my job and what I thrive on! Sure, I write the odd “gravy” show like Bingo or Darts, but with my personality, I’d never survive writing those shows all day. Some days the ole brain just doesn’t work the same, and I try to exercise regularly, eat healthy, manage stress, and maintain as much of a balanced lifestyle as possible, because many different things can affect the quality of my captions.

MyLegal.com: And what do you love most about your work?

Sandra German: I love that I’m providing such a valuable service every second of my job. I love learning new things, new words, new vocabulary, new content every day and keeping up with current events worldwide. I love the variety of material I write. I love the challenge that each new day brings. When I wake up in the morning, I say to myself, “What am I going to learn today?” I have a motto: Learn one thing every day and your day won’t be a waste. Well, in over 30 years as a court reporter, I haven’t had a wasted day yet!

MyLegal.com: Sandra, your primary audience is the Deaf and hard of hearing. How do you know if you are truly serving their needs? Do you have any personal interaction with your audience?

Sandra German: Well, in the CART environment, I am thanked every single day by at least one consumer for making their day! Unfortunately, I can’t recall many times I had a lawyer thank me for a job well done at a deposition or a trial. As far as captioning goes, where one can easily become complacent because there isn’t that direct contact with the consumer, I am very much aware of the value of captioning and the importance of writing consistently high quality captions at all times.

MyLegal.com: Is there a need at this time for more broadcast captioners? And if so, what would your advice be for those who wish to enter the field?

Sandra German: I believe there is and always will be a huge need for good captioners and CART providers. Consumers are becoming more “educated” now and know the difference between good and bad CART and captioning.

For those thinking of entering this field, the biggest factors in my view that separate the men from the boys are database development, solid, consistent steno theory foundation, diverse worldly knowledge, accuracy, and speed, and in that order too! Many have heard my soapbox rant: I could write 500 words per minute perfectly on steno paper, but if none of the strokes are in my dictionary database and nothing transcribes and/or is spelled correctly, then what is the end result? I know of excellent, accurate official court reporters or deposition reporters who were thrown into a chemistry, algebra, history, or Latin class or were scheduled to write a curling bonspiel or lacrosse game, a fashion or cooking show, and they were blown out of the water. They may have written the strokes correctly, but their databases were not developed enough for accurate translation.

Our steno theory foundation also has to be consistent so there’s no hesitation when writing new material. We can’t have different ways of writing certain suffixes depending on our mood for the day, and we shouldn’t have brief forms that are common word parts, and we need to have different strokes for a “word” that can be a prefix, suffix, word part or whole word to avoid the myriad word boundary conflicts that can occur. The list goes on.

I carry a notepad with me to write down new words and spellings I encounter throughout my day, and I try to speed-build whenever possible. I recommend maintaining memberships in state/provincial and national professional associations, as well as becoming involved in deaf, hard of hearing, and disability organizations. Acquiring and maintaining certifications and continuing education holds considerable value in our field.

Sandra German has been a court reporter for over 30 years as an official, a freelance firm owner, CART provider, and broadcast captioner. She pioneered CART in Alberta 17 years ago and began broadcast captioning 7 years ago. She has provided CART in educational, corporate, and personal settings such as post-secondary classes, workshops, conventions, weddings, funerals, convocations, and meetings with numerous federal, provincial, civic and public organizations, to name a few. She developed and taught a realtime course worldwide to court reporters wanting to become CART providers and captioners via simultaneous webcast internet. She is a guest lecturer, mentor, and facilitator to court reporting students and encourages fellow colleagues to join her in her many CART endeavours. In 2005, Sandra became Canada’s first RDR (Registered Diplomat Reporter), which is the highest level of certification through the National Court Reporters Assoc (NCRA). She has held numerous positions with the Alberta Shorthand Reporters Association (ASRA) and has been their president the last two years. Sandra chairs the Advisory Board of the Captioning and Court Reporting Program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). Sandra is an active member of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Assoc, and currently serves on NCRA’s membership committee and the CART Community of Interest. Her hobbies are reading, traveling, computers, scrapbooking and handicrafts, and interacting with people. She loves the path her career has taken her, especially working with the hard of hearing in educating the public and promoting access for persons with disabilities. Sandra can be reached at sandragerman@telus.net