Remote Realtime Captioning for Classroom Participation by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students‪.‬

INTRODUCTION A remote realtime captioning system has been in use at the University of Iowa since August of 1996 to allow Deaf and hard of hearing students to participate fully and independently in classes. Captioning is provided on a laptop computer system that the students take to class. The audio signal from the classroom microphone is transmitted via modem over a telephone line to the captioning service where a captioner transcribes the text of the lecture. This text is transmitted back to the student in the classroom via modem and is displayed on the computer. This article presents a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of remote realtime captioning and other communication options.