Tips for Hiring CART Captioners
These tips have been created to facilitate securing and hiring of CART captioners in a professional and efficient manner who are either in private practice or associated with a captioning agency or court reporting firm.
- Coordinate CART captioning service requests as early as possible prior to the event.
- Aim to secure a professionally trained captioner certified through NCRA.
- Be prepared to provide, at minimum, the date, time, and location of your request and the general nature of the assignment (conference, workshop, one-on-one, legal/medical setting. religious event, etc.).
- Discuss in advance all financial and logistical details. Questions to ask:
- What is your hourly rate?
- Do you charge for travel (mileage or portal to portal)?
- Is there a fee for preparation or setup time?
- Will the transcript be made available to me? If so, is there an additional cost?
- Will you need reserved seating (near the speaker or near an electrical source)?
- Will you bring the necessary equipment needed such as a projector, screen, and/or extension cords?
- Once you have secured CART captioning services, provide as much information in advance as possible (schedule, agenda, PowerPoints, handouts, outlines, names, technical vocabulary, websites, etc.). This allows for the necessary preparation to ensure as much accuracy as possible. If it is not possible to provide such information in advance, make every attempt to provide pertinent materials on the day of the event.