Here's the text of a letter I wrote to the provost and delivered to his office on October 9. I included the CART transcript so that he could judge its merit for himself.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Dear Dr *****:
I know that we agreed to respect each other’s time, however I am asking that you look at the transcript of our meeting on Tuesday, October 7. I had a difficult time following the conversation during our meeting. I’m not even sure that we were talking about the same subject during some parts of the meeting.
This CART service provider was formerly in one of my classes this fall. She missed the first class meeting entirely, and was late the next two meetings. I emailed the transcript of one class meeting to the instructor, and she had a difficult time understanding her own lecture. She went on to comment “…there is a huge amount of stuff missing or out of context or wrong … if you relied on just this, you’d be missing important material.” I believe the same problems are represented in this transcript of our meeting. This CART service has been removed from my class and a more appropriate accommodation has been substituted.
If providing this CART service is representative of the “best available accommodations” then I must respectfully state my disagreement with that statement because I know there are better providers in Ellensburg who would be happy to work in classrooms for students if they are given appropriate compensation and/or contracts. These providers are not asking for anything they couldn’t obtain at another university in Washington, and in fact, some have done so.
Thanks again for your involvement up to this point. I do respect your position and understand your reluctance to be further involved in this matter. I’m not requesting another meeting with you; I just wanted to illustrate what accommodations are really like in some instances.
Best regards,
I have not received a response and it would surprise me if I did.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Letter to the Provost
Glenn wrote:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
Bravo. You're an inspiration to students everywhere. Do you mind if I post a link to this blog on the broadcastcaptioners Yahoogroup? A number of the captioners there are also CART providers, and I have a feeling they'll be as outraged as I have been, reading your account of things. They might have some advice for what can be done next if this letter doesn't get results. You absolutely should not have to put up with substandard CART. It's a disservice to you, to my profession, and to the reputation of the University. There must be some solution.
Yours,
Mirabai Knight
StenoKnight CART Services
Please post a link to this blog anywhere. It is meant as a means to get the word out.
Even if you get no reply Glenn, at least you know you've provided him with evidence of the 'adequate accomidations possible'.
It's been suggested that I give the same letter and transcript to the president.
It's very disappointing that the request has not been duly responsive. They fail to comply with the ADA. Be sure to make a copy to the Department of Justice.
~SC
The Department of Justice says they don't have jurisdiction and have referred me to the Department of Education-specifically the Office of Civil Rights in Seattle. I've already filed with them and had a telephone interview them earlier this week.
Do you know whether the CART provider is a member of any associations such as the NCRA? Does she have letters after her name on her business card? Do you have a resume or anything showing this person actually has any credentials to back up the skills she claims to have? If she is a member of a professional association you could certainly write them and send along a sample of her product and your professor's comments stating that she missed a lot. The NCRA also has a monthly magazine that you could write a Letter to the Editor to. There needs to be a lot more regulation of CART. As it is now, it seems that practically anyone can bill him/herself out as a CART provider.
You've probably already read this, but the DOJ's own ADA site says that you can file under Title III of the ADA which covers "discrimination based on disability in public accommodations" including "places of education." It's at How to File a Title III Complaint, http://www.ada.gov/t3compfm.htm. Seems odd that they say they have no jurisdiction. There are so many ways for businesses to weasel out of good faith compliance. It's sickening. I'll keep an eye out for useful information. Good for you for fighting back. So many folks just give up.
I haven't seen a business card or resume or anything like that. The only thing that I know about her is that her name is Diane. I don't expect to see much of her anymore because I told the Disability Support Services coordinator that I no longer wanted this CART provider in any of my classes or meetings. He responded that he would not schedule her again.
Perhaps I should post up a paragraph from a transcript she provided. I've had CART in another school, and it was FAR better than this disgrace.
She is still providing for some other students. I think that they should just refuse her when she comes in the class--tell her to go back to DSS and tell them she was refused because she doesn't provide worthwhile services. I don't know if the other students are comfortable with that. I've done that with remote CART previously, and I would do it again.
Good for you! One would think that the school paying this person would not want to waste money on bad service. I haven't used CART. My son uses ASL interpreters, and they always give their full names and a business card or other id. He or I have to sign a paper verifying that the services were actually provided. I'd hope that CART providers would follow the same practices. Otherwise, how does she bill? Do they just take her word for it? Thank you for sharing your experience. I'll know to be wary on my own and my family's behalf now.
Louise Becker from the Washington State Court Reporters Association just emailed me the following:
"Thanks for sharing your story. I’m in the process of proposing CART certification here in Washington State. It may not completely prevent stories like yours, but it should help.
Could I have your permission to share this story with the WCRA members in 2 weeks at the annual convention (removing any proper names, of course)? They’re voting on whether to endorse the COPE and CART language prior to submitting the latter to the DOL.
Thanks!
Louise Becker, RMR, CRR, CCP, CBC
Olympia, WA"
If you'd like me to give you her email address, Glenn, just write me at mkk@stenoknight.com . Maybe something can be done about this situation.
There is no permission necessary to share anything on this blog, so please feel free to pass on links to this blog or copy/paste anything on it.
Incidentally, I know that CART protocol is not entirely standardized, but I always do the following:
1. Give a copy of my business card to the student, university and the professor (to be put on any classwide mailing lists) on the first day of the semester.
2. Arrive at least 30 minutes early to each class to allow time to set up. I also allow time for transportation mishaps; if my commute generally takes one hour, I'll leave two hours beforehand.
3. Review all class materials including textbook, handouts, and online supplements before each class, adding specialized vocabulary to my steno dictionary and acquainting myself with the main thrust of the material.
4. Sit as close to the professor as possible. If the student prefers to sit in the back in order to be able to see who's speaking, I would give them a handheld wireless monitor system linked to my CART output.
5. Ask the student whether I should interrupt if I don't hear or understand a word, and act accordingly.
6. Ask the student if I should transcribe what they say in class, explaining that in rapid-fire conversations I might truncate the end of their last sentence so that there's a minimum of lag time in relaying the reply.
7. Customize font and display settings to the student's preference.
8. Use intelligent phonetic translation software so that the student never has to see raw steno output, even in the case of a mistranslated word. Fingerspell any important word that's mistranslated and define it at the earliest opportunity.
9. In editing transcripts, make three sweeps: first to find spots I marked for later review, second to find untranslated or mistranslated words, and third to find misspellings. All unfamiliar words should be verified through class materials or internet research.
In my opinion, this is the bare minimum a CART provider should do. The rest depends on the speed and accuracy of their fingers, the size of their vocabulary and their steno dictionary, and their general capability to follow the material of the class. If a CART provider feels incapable of getting down the material verbatim or near-verbatim in realtime, they should refuse the position and allow a more experienced provider to take their place. Anything less is unethical.
Glenn,
You mentioned that the first name of the bad CART provider was "Diane." I checked http://cart.ncraonline.org/Directory/Washington.htm and did not see any "Diane" listed. Likewise, I checked Cartwheel (http://www.cartwheel.cc) and did not see anyone in Washington state listed.
Jamie
That's not surprising given what I have seen of her work.
There was a comment by Darlene a few posts back about CART providers being contacted for work by CWU back in February, but their pay offer wasn't close to what certified CART providers are getting.
All that CWU seems interested in is saving money and only hiring the lowest paid providers who don't have the necessary skills.
what does typewell cost?
I am a former employee at CWU and I provided speech-to-text transcription using TypeWell for 5 years. The starting rate for transcribers in 2003 was $20/hour. The more experience you have, the more education you have, the more the pay can increase. Remember, CWU does not provide insurance for their temp hourly employees(ASL interpreters, speech-to-text providers, etc.).
The hourly rate really depends on where the provider is and how much experience and education they have. Each institution has their own payscale and criteria for pay. I have heard the hourly rate as low as $12/hour up to $100/hour in places like New York.
I guess the best answer would be: it depends.
Hope that helps.
Amanda Triggs
Post a Comment