180 Credits

The BAS degree in Realtime Reporting: Court Reporting & Captioning is designed to prepare students for employment in the fields of realtime official and freelance judicial reporting, broadcast captioning, or educational captioning, also known as CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation).

Realtime court reporters record the verbatim proceedings of a courtroom, deposition, hearing, arbitration, or meeting and provide an accurate transcript of the proceedings. Realtime captioners are specially trained court reporters called stenocaptioners. They provide captions of live television programs and other media, or classes, meetings, conferences, church services, etc., to provide instant conversion of speech to text for people with hearing loss. These high-tech career fields utilize a steno machine, specialized machine shorthand theory, and computer software to translate the spoken word to readable text via digital output or transcripts.

Green River’s Court Reporting and Captioning program is approved by the National Court Reporters Association. Entry requirements into the BAS Realtime Reporting program are:

• Possess an AAA or AAS degree in Realtime Transcription, Court Reporting, or Captioning from an NCRA-approved program with a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or better
• Completion of ENGL& 101  with a grade of 2.5 or better
• Completion of MATH 097  with a grade of 2.5 or better

NOTE: Students who may not meet the stated entry requirements should contact program faculty to learn about alternative pathways for entry into the BAS program.

Upon completion of the required classes, students qualify for the Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Realtime Reporting with a concentration in either court reporting or captioning/CART.

Judicial Court Reporting students must complete 60 hours of internship of which 50 hours is actual writing time during internship training; passed three five-minute tests with 96 percent accuracy or above on literary at 180 wpm and jury charge at 200 wpm; and passed three 5-minute tests on Q&A (two-voice) at 225 wpm, with 95 percent accuracy or above. In addition to course work, there are state and/or national examinations that a student should pass to become a court reporter. Reporters must pass the Washington State Licensing examination in order to be certified to work in the state of Washington.

Broadcast Captioning students must complete 25 hours of writing time on campus, off-site, or remotely, under the supervision of an institutional instructor or practicing captioner. Fifteen hours of research and dictionary preparation is also required. Students must pass three 15-minute literary broadcast material takes at 180 wpm at 96 percent accuracy or higher; and pass three 5-minute realtime literary tests with a minimum of 96 percent accuracy.

Educational Captioning (CART) students must complete 25 hours of writing time on campus, off-site, or remotely, under the supervision of an institutional instructor or a practicing CART captioner. Fifteen hours of research and dictionary preparation is also required. Students must pass three 5-minute realtime literary takes at 180 wpm at 96 percent accuracy; pass two 5-minute tests on Q&A (two-voice) at 225 wpm with 95 percent accuracy; submit an unedited realtime translation of two 30-minute segments on varied topics with variable speeds of 180-200 wpm with a goal of 96 percent accuracy or higher for evaluation purposes. In addition to the course work, there are state and/or national examinations that are recommended a student should pass to become a captioner/CART provider.

For more information about this degree, please contact either of the following:

Lori Rapozo, ext. 4219 lrapozo@greenriver.edu, Sidney Weldele-Wallace, ext.4705 sweldele@greenriver.edu