Submitted by Nancy Eaton, CCP, CRR, FAPR, RDR

CART Myth and Fact

Myth: I get paid more as a court reporter.

Fact: Yes and no.
No page rates. You get 1 hour prep for each 2 hour minimum rate.
MCDHH contract – 3 tiers
$60 @ 3 = $180
$65 @ 3 = $195
$70 @ 3 = $210
Travel time at ½ hourly rate. Hour equals 50 miles. Plus mileage.
72 hour cancellation policy.

Break down a transcript bill. Divide it by the number of hours to travel, write, edit, proof, deliver for an hourly rate.
Example: $3/pg org; $2/pg cc = $5 x 200 = $1,000. 2 hr travel+5 hr writing+7 hr edit/proof =14 hr = $71/hr

Myth: If I contract with MCDHH, I have to accept everything they ask me to cover.

Fact: You are free to accept or reject any assignment. In fact you are ethically obligated to turn down any job you do not feel qualified for.

Myth: There are favorites on contract and they get all the work or the best work.

Fact: Since the inception of CART in 1990, the highest fill rate has been 70%. Minimum of 30% of work goes unfilled. The last 18 months 50% of the requests were unfilled.

Job requests are covered by: Consumer preference; expertise for a
particular type of work; geographical proximity; equally by all available
to cover the assignment.

Myth: MCDHH Referral charges me a commission.

Fact: No, there is no commission paid to MCDHH for any referral at this time.

Myth: The rates are too low. Can’t I charge more?

Fact: The rates apply to MCDHH paid work. Other state entities may use
the contract terms and rates if YOU agree. Private work referred by the
commission, you may charge CART freelance rates.

Myth: I have to know ASL to do CART.

Fact: No. Most/many of our consumers are late deafened or hard of hearing
people and don’t know sign either. It is nice to know some sign in order
to communicate when your equipment is not set up for those that do know
and use sign language.

Myth: My writing has to be perfect to do CART.

Fact: No, you should not have more than a 3% untranslate rate. Ideally it
should be less because the untranslate rate does not calculate mistranslates
or word boundary problems.

You should constantly work at improving your writing and dictionary.
You should be able to correct mistakes on the fly.

You don’t have to be able to do it all before training.

Myth: I can’t interrupt when I’m doing CART.

Fact: Just as with court reporting, you should interrupt only when necessary;
but you are the ears for someone else. If you don’t know what was said,
neither do they. Interrupt to clarify what was said, to ask someone to
speak up, speak slower, to spell a term.

Myth: I don’t have to write verbatim in CART.

Fact: The goal is 100% verbatim. You may substitute a word when you know
it is not in your dictionary but the better alternative is to spell it out so it
looks like a word. Summarizing is not preferred and is to be used in
limited circumstances, such as letting the consumer know what was being
said while you were setting up, or if they come in late to orient them to
what is happening now.

You can put (repeated) when something is repeated instead of rewriting.

Myth: CART is harder than court reporting because you need to write nonverbal
communication cues like laughter, applause and explanations. Speakers
may continue to speak while you insert these and you have to also write
what they are saying.

Fact: You have to put in parentheticals and we’ve developed some one-stroke outlines to make writing easier.

Myth: I’m interested in doing CART, but it would be too difficult to go back
and forth between court reporting and CART.

Fact: Your goal for both is 100% verbatim. You need to add more
environmental sounds and information; but even if you wrote
them in court reporting, you can always take them out when editing.
Many people have done both for several years.

Myth: I haven’t passed the CRR or CCP, so I can’t do CART.

Fact: Passing NCRA exams is always good, but to get on contract with
MCDHH you only need to have passed the RPR, have taken awareness
training and have a recommendation from a CART mentor and CART
consumer. Some CART Providers have only passed the CSR. MCDHH
screening is being developed and perhaps state licensing.

Myth: There is no licensing for CART.

Fact: Not yet, but there are criteria for going on contract with MCDHH.
RPR, CART training course, mentor and consumer references, education.
There is a point system to determine which pay rate you qualify for.

Most colleges ask if you are on MCDHH contract.
Consumers give feedback.

Myth: I can do CART at colleges and universities and undercut prices currently
charged.

Fact: Most universities have qualifications they expect communication access
providers to have. Rates are kept to a minimum and many colleges
expect additional services and/or reduced rates for volume. Most
universities have student evaluations of your work.

Myth: I only need to know how to write realtime steno to do CART.

Fact: You need to know and implement the ethical standards. You need to
know how to communicate with people with a variety of levels of hearing
loss. Reputation spreads quickly. You need to insert nonoral
communication.

Myth: The Personal Dictionary I use for court is good enough for CART.

Fact: Legal work has very stylized vocabulary. CART uses conversational
language: slang, incomplete sentences, everyday words.

In the educational setting, you need academic language proficiency – lots
of terminology for every subject.

You may need to double the entries in your personal or job dictionaries depending on the type of work you do.