This live captioning can take place in a classroom by a trained professional typing as they listen to the teacher speak, or by an operator repeating what the teacher says into a microphone, with their speech converted to text via automatic speech recognition technology. The article recognises the value of printed text as a supplement to audio content, not only for students with hearing impairment, but for all students.
This is a key value shared by Media Access Australia’s Classroom Access Project, which promotes the idea that captions are a tool for improved learning, as well as improved accessibility.
Issues of cost, accuracy and availability of trained speech-to-text professionals have so far limited the use of classroom speech-to-text technologies, but the technology continues to improve and should be an increasingly viable option for use in educational contexts in the future.
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