Caption Nerds, LLC

 The acronym CART stands for Communication Access Realtime Technology (CART) and is human made real-time captions created by professionally trained captioners.  

Stenographers were the first voice-to-text captioners ever and proved proof of concept that laid the groundwork of the Federal laws regarding captions we still use today, while planning for the future by using the latest technology in the industry.  

 The Americans with Disabilities Act recognizes CART Captioning as an effective access to communication. Additionally, the following list outlines additional laws that may be applicable to Stenographic CART Captions: 

Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 – Public Law 111-260 

Title II – Video Programming 

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504

 The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended in 1998, Section 508

Remote CART captions are great for virtual events, hybrid or on-site events with budget constraints, and opens up service options for more folks. Ideal for workplaces, educational institutions, medical appointments and more.   

Captions can be deployed subtlety, one-on-one, embedded into virtual environments, displayed on large LCD screens, streamed to personal devices such as phones, tablets and more.

If clients can provide a quality audio feed and has reliable Internet access, we can remotely caption your event.

On-site captions are ideal for several customers, including robust environments such as expos and summits where remote audio might not be ideal. On-site CART captioners also support walking tours, exciting concerts, resorts and cruise ships, small classroom settings, and environments with no or limited Internet access. 

While automation touts itself as reliable under “ideal circumstances” human captioners realize life is robust, loud, quite, sometimes messy, and oftentimes not “ideal circumstances” when Wi-fi fails, or audiences drown out speakers on a microphone, when a speaker panel gets heated, when someone speaks softly, human captions on-site can “hone in” on whomever they need to provide language access and reasonable accommodations to audience members relying on captions to be included. 

On-Site CART captions can be deployed with or without Internet access. Like remote work. on-site captions and be for one consumer or displayed for an entire room.

Caption Nerds owner Thomas Herman has been active for years in promoting stenography as a career option, more specifically raising awareness for the Americans with Disabilities Act-recognized CART captions. 

Starting with a grassroots social media campaign, Thomas has become a public speaker and has an unpretentious approach to discussing the intersectionality of business, advocacy, technical workflows, and the human condition; all things that captioners often navigate as language access and/or disability support vendors.

Please check the Media page for more details.

If you’re interested in consulting or speaking opportunities, feel free to contact us.