Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

After much blood, sweat, toil, and tears, I am officially trained as a TypeWell Transcriber.  I---

“But, what is a transcriber?”

Well, I’m glad you asked.  A transcriber, according to Google, is someone who makes a written version of spoken material.  Have you ever seen the person in the court room sitting off to the side typing every word that is spoken?  That’s a transcriber.

At UT, there are some students whose hearing loss is not so profound as to warrant a sign language interpreter (and many of them don’t know sign language).  There are times, however, that background noise in the room or lively discussion makes discerning every word or sound difficult.  That’s where a transcriber comes in.  He/she sits in the room and types a meaning-for-meaning written account of what goes on during the discussion.  It then appears in real time on a PDA or laptop on the student’s desk.  It’s really quite cool.

To do this, we use a system called TypeWell.  It’s a computer software system designed to recognize words based on the order of their consonants.  In essence, the transcriber types out the consonants and the TypeWell system fills in the vowels on the student’s linked device. 

I’ve been training in this method since I started at UT, and just yesterday, I received my final passing grade!  I can officially start transcribing classes. 

It is indeed a neat skill to be able to tuck into my tool belt. 

Kevin told me that when I finished training he’d take me out to dinner.  After learning of an hour-and-a-half wait at P.F.Changs, we headed to Rafferty’s (talk abut polar opposites!).  It was a delightful experience as neither of us had ever been, and we’d highly recommend it to any and all.  

And here's a blast from the archives of Kevin and Lydia.  I was impressed that three full years later, we're still dressing the same.  Is that a good thing or bad? :-)