Contact: Pete Wacht, pwacht@ncrahq.org
703-556-6272 (office)
571-228-7346 (cell)
Court Reporters Face Diminishing Ranks
(VIENNA, VA, July 9, 2007) – Court cases like those surrounding Paris Hilton and Scooter Libby are high drama for most of us, but everyday routine for court reporters. As guardians of the record whenever spoken words must be made into text, their skills are in growing demand. But the fact is that their ranks are growing thin.
The National Court Reporters Association reports a downward trend in the number of court reporters graduating this year from NCRA-certified programs, at the very time that more are needed for assignments in television studios, classrooms, conferences, even cathedrals or theaters, as well as courthouses and law offices. Work is plentiful in government, professional firms or freelancing. Annual earnings often exceed $70,000.
“These highly trained professionals are uniquely able to capture and convert spoken words into information that can be read, searched and archived,” says Mark Golden, NCRA executive director and CEO. “This specialization has created new career paths, including broadcast captioning and realtime translation services for people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing.”
The federal Telecommunications Act also boosted demand for court reporters by mandating large increases in the numbers and types of television broadcasts that must be closed-captioned.
So if supply-and-demand were running by the book, newly-minted court reporters should have lots of company. More schools and colleges, both public and private, should be offering court reporting classes. But such is not the case.
According to Reesa Parker, NCRA’s president, the number of schools taking part in NCRA’s certification programs and their graduates have steadily declined over the decade. Almost 1,000 students graduated from more than 100 NCRA-certified schools in 1996. This year, 62 certified programs across the U.S. will graduate fewer than 350 court reporters. Link: Graduation trends in NCRA-certified programs
Last year, due to the shortage of broadcast captioners, the deadline set by the Telecommunications Act was missed for closed-captioning of all new television programs in English. Millions of hard-of-hearing Americans were left without access to programming and critical emergency information.
To help meet the need for court reporters, NCRA is reaching out to potential students at http://www.bestfuture.com/. In addition, bills before the Senate and House call for competitive grants to train captioners and reporters who specialize in realtime and Communication Access Realtime Translation. CART provides an immediate translation of all spoken words and environmental sounds in academic, civic, religious or cultural events for those who are deaf, have hearing loss or are learning English as a second language.
“The training is challenging,” says NCRA President Parker. “Court reporting courses take two to four years. They demand a great deal of practice and highly-developed skills of dexterity and concentration. But for those who become guardians of the record, the rewards and sense of making a real contribution make it all worthwhile.”
###
National Court Reporters Association
NCRA, a 24,000-member nonprofit organization, represents the judicial reporting and captioning professions. Members include official court reporters, deposition reporters, broadcast captioners, providers of realtime communication access services for deaf and hard-of-hearing people and others who capture and convert the spoken word into information bases and readable formats. For information, visit www.ncraonline.org.