Real-time captions to be delivered in NSW public schools

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Wednesday, 19 June 2013 14:38pm

Progress has been made towards equitable education in New South Wales public schools with captioning provider Ai-Media winning a competitive tender to provide live captions in classrooms across the state.

Live or real-time captions are provided at schools, universities, conferences and workplaces. The Ai-Live system uses a trained captioner working remotely, transcribing live speech into captions which appear discreetly on the student’s laptop. This gives Deaf and hearing impaired students direct access to teacher instruction via text.

If the school chooses, a transcript of the lesson can also be provided. This is important as unlike students with hearing, those who are Deaf or have hearing impairment cannot lipread, read captions and take notes at the same time.

Ai-Media will deliver its Real Time Classroom Captioning Development Project in two stages: the first covering schools in metropolitan Sydney, the second covering schools in regional and remote areas of NSW.

Media Access Australia’s Education Manager, Anne McGrath, explained that “The provision of real-time captions in the classroom and transcripts of lessons provide these students with necessary and all-important context, which facilitates inclusion in the teaching and learning process.”

These services are increasingly being seen as a mainstream solution which normalises the provision of captions in the classroom. The NSW Department of Education and Ai-Media are demonstrating long-term commitment to delivering practical in-class solutions through this partnership.

Media Access Australia is currently inviting educators to become Captions Championsin their school to boost awareness of captions as a literacy-boosting tool for all students.


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