“I have excelled and thrived because of captioning. Thank you very much for these accessibility services.”
“Thanks for being so amazing these past couple of years and keeping up with my constantly changing schedule. Couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Without CART, I would not be successful. I appreciate you and am grateful for you.”
These are just some of the positive sentiments NIU students have expressed about Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services offered by the Disability Resource Center.
CART provides captioning in real time for students who may not have been born deaf but who lost their hearing later in their lives.
Pam Wixom
“The students we work with are not fluent in sign language and they use our CART services, so they have access to the classroom,” Pam Wixom, NIU’s lead CART captioner, said. “The goal is for them to experience a class just like a hearing person would experience it.”
As part of achieving that goal, professors wear a microphone during class and are encouraged to pass the microphone to others who may be speaking as part of a group discussion. Wixom and her fellow CART captioners are then able to transcribe what is said in those added discussions, so students utilizing this service can interact in that way as well.
Students who wish to use the CART service can complete a request form or contact the Disability Resource Center at 815-753-1303 or drc@niu.edu.
Check out the full story in NIU Today.
