American Apex provides CART services for courts, schools, businesses and events in all 50 states. Our captioners write every spoken word in real time, so people who are deaf or hard of hearing can follow along instantly.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for joining us this morning.
What is CART
CART stands for Communication Access Realtime Translation. A trained captioner listens to the speaker while writing on a stenotype machine. Software then turns those keystrokes into readable text within seconds.
Unlike automatic captions, a human captioner understands context, names and technical terms. As a result, readers get text they can rely on in a classroom, a hearing or a meeting.
Human captioners, not auto captions
Text on a screen, laptop or phone
Onsite or remote delivery
Transcripts available after sessions
Compare
Automatic captions cost less, but they often miss what matters most. So here is how the two options compare.
| CART captioner | Automatic captions | |
|---|---|---|
| Accuracy | High, because a trained captioner understands context. | Varies, especially when accents or crosstalk appear. |
| Names and terms | Prepared in advance, so they appear correctly. | Often misheard or misspelled. |
| Speaker changes | Labeled as people take turns. | Usually unlabeled, so readers can lose track. |
| Access duties | Listed among the aids in ADA guidance. | May fall short on its own, so check your duties. |
For legal and medical settings, a human captioner is usually the safer choice.
Explore
Choose the setting that matches your needs. Each page explains how the service works and how to book it.
Schools get one captioning partner for the whole campus, so planning stays simple.
How it works
Share the details
Tell us the date, setting, audience and whether you need onsite or remote text.
Send prep material
Agendas, slides and name lists then help the captioner build a custom dictionary.
Display the text
Captions appear on a screen, a laptop or a personal device while people speak.
Receive a transcript
On request, we send an edited transcript after the session ends.
FAQ
How does CART differ from automatic captions?
Automatic captions rely on speech recognition, but it often struggles with accents, names and crosstalk. In contrast, a CART captioner listens, understands and corrects in real time.
Does the ADA recognize CART?
Yes, the ADA also lists real-time captioning among the aids that support effective communication. For details, read the ADA effective communication guide.
Can you caption sessions in any state?
Yes, we provide remote CART anywhere, and we also coordinate onsite captioners across the country.
Request CART
Call (877) APEX-007 or send your request online. We will then confirm a captioner and the display setup.
