ASL Interpreters and CART Providers

American Sign Language/Spoken English Interpreting

Interpreters are professionals who are bound by the Code of Professional Conduct as established by the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). The practice of Interpreting is the process of transmitting spoken English to and from American Sign Language (ASL) between Deaf and hearing individuals.

Computer Aided Realtime Translation (CART)

Services are provided by professional court reporters who have additional training and/or experience in real time transcription for the purposes of communication access. The reporter uses a stenographer’s machine attached to a computer. The computer translates the stenotype shorthand into English and displays it on a computer monitor or large screen, whichever is appropriate for a given situation. The service transcribes spoken English, a form inaccessible to most deaf and hard of hearing people, to the printed form which is accessible. This service is most often used by deaf or hard of hearing students whose primary language is English. (CART Providers are also bound by professional standards by association with ODS)


In class or lab, many D/deaf or hard of hearing students may use the services of a notetaker. This is a paid position. Often the notetaker is a fellow student in the class.  The notetaker is responsible for taking detailed notes and for providing a copy of these notes to the student.

Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs)

The Office of Disability Services has FM systems for loan to be used in classroom and lecture situations. It is a wireless amplification system that consists of a small microphone, transmitter and receiver. The speaker wears a lapel microphone and clip-on transmitter. Speech is transmitted via FM radio signal directly to the listener’s receiver, drastically reducing interference from background noise. ALDs are most often used by hard of hearing people.