Why I need Captioning and why you should care?
My take on captioning & accessibility. [co-author: Fatima Usman]
Frankly, my dear, you’re seeing closed captions saying this story’s banner image in a blurred cinematic background.
So what are the benefits of real-time captioning?
Communication Access Real-Time (CART) is a type of accommodation that benefits deaf/hard of hearing persons who rely on visuals such as texts to understand audio and decipher sounds.
It is an excellent accommodation to get full access to spoken conversations for classrooms, seminars, conferences, etc.
It can be fully remote, that is, the captionist needs access to sounds from the room via speaker and/or audio calls. Remote can be a real challenge if the quality and volume of voice or gadget is bad. With remote, they provide you a stream link which you can open in your own browser on a laptop or stream on mobile on the go.
I have so much respect for court stenographers, typists, and captions service providers. I couldn’t have enjoyed my Masters program, the off-campus networking activities at multiple places in more than 15 States, or the dozens of Fulbright seminars/conferences and global meet with interesting stakeholders during classroom practicum and internships. As a Pakistani, international student on a US J1 visa, I was covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); all accommodations for a documented disability are provided free of cost and legally mandated.
My initial awkwardness with real-time captions
If I did not request an accommodation, I would have never have enjoyed my Fulbright and Masters study abroad experience. Although I can hear most sounds, it is easy to miss out on English accented speech, the quick back and forth during lectures, cinematic experience, theatre plays on distant stages, etc. Humanly speaking, it is easy to feel sensory overload and spend so much on deciphering spoken words through lip-reading and alert hearing, and getting them wrong even after I feel I have understood correctly.
Honest to God, it was very awkward to have the whole CART set-up each time, explain to people/fellows when they stare. Even when they stare if rudely out of discomfort, I would redirect their attention and initiate a friendly talk to “enlighten” them. Other times I have had given fantastic open invitations to American and international students on this kind of accommodation, and why I need this exactly due to a sensorineural hearing loss. Simply speaking, it is my live subtitles or captioning!
It gets comfortable after a while and you give kudos to yourself for juggling so many tasks at one time.
Websites — the only info gateway to universities’ accommodations!
Throughout my educational phase in Pakistan, I have missed out on many interesting discourses, conversations, and classroom teaching because of my hearing inability to process spoken words, sometimes due to distance, sewing machine speed of people teaching, or general apathy towards us. I have had excellent teachers or a librarian and 1 or 2 class fellows per grade, without whom I would have clearly failed as an ambitious student.
When I applied for Fulbright, I did my research on which universities provide what sort of accommodations on or off-campus. I considered Gallaudet University, the only institution in Washington DC for deaf/hard of hearing students who advanced to STEM vocabulary. I researched accommodations that vary a lot such as FM device amplification, persons who accompany you so they can repeat and you lip-read them, live captions access, sign language interpreters. Based on your hearing loss and preferred communication methods, some accommodation might not work for you. For eg, I lip-read and hear people along with phonics (some sounds I cannot hear if they are in the high-frequency range and that is where my loss happened from birth due to damaged auditory nerve to the brain) so I went with CART at Boston University for EACH of my class, seminar, conference. I had to arrange accommodations prior to each semester. When I did not make it to class, they would offer remote captioning.
My initial diagnosis and why my speech is not natural?
Upon diagnosis, I underwent multiple speech therapy, sound recognition with hearing aids which enabled us to “acquire” some speech. Hence, we didn’t learn to communicate through sign language and grew up taking more therapies whenever opportunity and finance were on our side (which never was). My speech will never be perfectly naturalized so instead of wasting time on perfecting it, we concentrated on other things such as social skills, linguistic (reading/writing/speaking in our ways), and improving our situational awareness for danger and safe sounds. My residual hearing might decrease with age, but having access to captions and a clear understanding of my needs in a social setting, and sticking to 1–2 communication preferences make not just mine but others’ lives easier too.
Forward and onward with advocacy
I hope to continue advocating and calling out inaccessible platforms, apps, videos, and meetings. If you are still reading this story, please understand that any kind of disability can occur at any time: birth on-set, accident, injuries, traumatic mid-life, geriatric — old age, early age onset. Understand that any loss, disorder or disability can be on a spectrum, which means some have more loss, some adapt, some cope well. Sometimes it's mild to moderate, other times disability can be severe and compound underlying health complications. Sometimes it’s temporary, others are permanent like mine is. And then some others are hidden. It may not be physically obvious but it is there such as a learning disability (dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia), a mild hearing difficulty or people with chronic and mental illnesses.
A hidden disability does not mean the person living with it doesn’t struggle. They may be forced to mask intentionally or feel it's not significant enough to define their whole being.
Please advocate and speak up if you are aware, and dealt the cards of ableism. Please call out discriminatory attitudes and invite them to a chat. Often times it is coming from a place of no awareness or exposure, or the comfort of living in a bubble. Please diversify your social circles starting from young ones in your family, push for inclusive hiring and learn how to ask for communication preference. Ask for accommodations during interviews and meetings, both in-person and virtual esp during WFH. Even if not available, ask. That will push hiring managers and HR to begin thinking and start the narrative. They may also be forced to think of a lawsuit if their companies violate the government’s policies.
Always ask, do not assume
Trust me it’s always better to ask than assume. Don’t let them discriminate and get away with the BS that is shown to us each day. Own your rights.
It's taxing living in an unforgiving society. Let’s make our immediate community better. Let’s push for captioning and subtitling access to those who need it.
Signing off by an education consultant, advocate for accessibility, and a Fulbright alumna in Special Education. For the larger part of her life, she had missed out on funny and meaningful conversations with friends and family members. She has missed out on a great cinematic experience in Pakistan because of no access to captions. She has been part of ableist workplaces and extended family members who bullied and demonstrated a superiority complex. Nonetheless, I am truly grateful for this early childhood, teen, and pre-Fulbright experience that shaped her mission to recognize subtle and overt signs of ableism/discrimination and why they occur. If educating is the key, so be it. The only power that changes anyone. No more remaining a fly on the wall. Time to hit the nail through participatory advocacy.
Feel free to message: khaulariwanconsultancy@gmail.com
