Business Culture, Communication Access & Realtime Translation (CART)

An essential aspect of business culture is the ability to communicate and trade with people and organisations globally. Due to the COVID-19, digital tools to facilitate this are increasingly important.

CART, or Communication Access Realtime Translation, comprises a wide range of services intended to improve accessibility for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, as an alternative to the use of a sign-language interpreter. 

In instances where the resource is not broadcasted live, captions can be created to accurately depict and distinguish between speakers for the benefit of those who cannot hear. In live sessions, such as virtual meetings and online courses, ensuring accessibility for those who would require captioning can prove to be much more difficult.

Read more about the role CART services play within professional and academic settings below.

When are CART Services Required?

In an increasingly digital world where remote work and long-distance education are growing ever more common, CART services are proving themselves to be more vital to businesses and learning organisations than ever before.

Live communication offers a wide range of benefits over pre-recorded audio, but the process of turning speech into text must be as fast – and as accurate – as possible. For a human, recording every word spoken, and keeping up with a number of different speakers, is incredibly difficult, and accuracy will suffer as a result.

The average native speaker, for instance, will talk at a rate of 100 words per minute (wpm), while the average typist will achieve a rate of around 40 wpm. During a live event, lesson or meeting, any shortfall will hinder accessibility for those who are hard of hearing, or deaf.

Advanced CART transcription software is capable of attaining 95% accuracy for live audio within twelve seconds, enabling those who are unable to hear the speaker to follow a livestream with minimal delays.

Within eight hours, a full transcript with >99% accuracy can be provided, ensuring that your event is compliant with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), and that resources from the event can be accessed by anyone in need of them. 

When Do You Need CART Services?

Any time that you host a live event, whether it is a remote meeting or virtual course, relying on speech alone will exclude a (potentially large) portion of your viewers. Of course, even if your event excludes only one person from participating, this is one too many – which is why every business or educational institution will find that CART services are integral to accessibility.

Hearing impairment affects people of all age groups, which means that hosting events without any CART services in place automatically dismisses a significant portion of the population. In a broader sense, both academic and professional settings must be prepared to cater to those with disabilities, and utilising a rapid, AI-based speech to text software will ensure that your event does not exclude those for whom captions remain essential.

CART services are as integral to the execution of large- and small-scale virtual events as your microphone, and should never be overlooked – particularly as our emphasis on digital meetings, lessons, courses and events continues to grow.