Careers > Realtime Captioner > A Letter from Amy Bowlen

A Letter from Amy Bowlen

A letter to prospective realtime captioners...

From Amy Bowlen, FAPR-RDR-CRR-CBC
Manager, Realtime Captioning Training
VITAC, a Merrill Communications Company

I began my career in captioning with VITAC way back in 1989. I was one of the two on-air captioners employed by VITAC at the time. We captioned the half-hour early morning Sunrise news on NBC followed by the two-hour Today show, five days a week, Monday through Friday. We arrived at our offices at 4:00 a.m. to prepare for our shows, and in those days that meant preparing from the newspaper, reference books and information faxed to us by the client. There was no internet back then! After making dictionary entries as part of our prep, the dictionary updating process required in the captioning software to actually get those entries into the dictionaries for translation would take as much as 20 minutes! Believe me, we had some nervous moments as we watched the clock tick down to air time. When we weren't on the air, we spent hours reviewing our files and practicing, practicing, practicing, in an effort to improve our skills. We didn't learn a realtime theory in court reporting school, nor were there realtime books or realtime workshops to help us through the process. We truly had to learn the hard way … through our mistakes.

VITAC has entered its third decade in the business of captioning. In the beginning VITAC captioned a total of 2.5 hours of programming per week! Three of VITAC's five private owners were long-time court reporters who ran successful freelance firms, and who developed an interest in serving the deaf and hard of hearing through access to television. They knew they possessed the only skill that could provide this access. They began their company by learning deaf culture and serving the deaf community through service on boards and participation in worthwhile projects.

As a result of their commitment to the deaf and hard of hearing, this idea of providing communication access through realtime captioning on a local level grew into more than they could ever have imagined. Today, VITAC captions more than 2,500 hours of programming per week. Twenty years after their first program captioned from a basement office, VITAC now maintains three offices: North Hollywood; Washington, D.C.; and its Headquarters located in the city where it all began…Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. VITAC employs over 250 professionals, including 105 realtime captioners, most of whom work from their homes across the nation.

What a different world we caption in today! Not only do most captioners work remotely from their homes, but we now have the Internet, which makes research easier and more timely. We have artificial intelligence in our software today that resolves some of our writing difficulties. We have the ability to expand our knowledge through on-line training programs. We have paperless and wireless writers, and we have laptop computers. We have broadband technology that allows us to deliver information better and faster than ever before.

Something else has changed over the years -- our viewing audience. When laws were passed that required television manufacturers to build decoder chips into their television sets, the world became our audience. As captioning mandates were expanded, more hours of programming had to be captioned, again increasing our audience. Despite the training and technology that helps us to be better captioners, the onus is on the individual captioners to be the best writer they can be and to always strive to enhance their skills and knowledge.

It's not the technology that makes VITAC a success. It's the people behind the technology. It's our highly skilled captioners who came to us with great qualifications, but they know that the learning never ends in our jobs. Their commitment to excellence is second to none in the industry. That's why they were hired by VITAC.

It's our Production Coordinators, who assist us prior to air with advance scripting, providing show formats and caption parameters, rundowns and team rosters, phone numbers and encoder settings, and any pre-air assistance needed to be sure we have everything that we need so that we can concentrate on one thing…solid realtime writing.

It's our Information Technology Team, who manages all of our software issues and works with the vendors to perfect performance and maximize the efforts of the captioners.

It's our Engineering Team, who orders, configures and maintains our captioners' hardware. New hardware is ordered for every captioner, configured to precise specifications and ready with converted dictionaries for the captioner's arrival at Pittsburgh for training. Every captioner is provided the same software and hardware so that problems can be remotely diagnosed and resolved. Our captioners never have to worry about missing a day's work due to malfunctioning software or hardware. VITAC's work is 24/7, 365 days of the year, and so must our Technology Team be available to assist with any problems that may arise on the job.

It's our Scheduling Team, who works 24/7 managing over 2,500 weekly program hours and juggles last-minute changes and requests from clients.

It's our Finance Department, who carefully maintains our on-air hours so that we are paid on time, every time, with direct deposit to our accounts.

It's our Human Resources Department, who ensures that our benefits are coordinated and that no questions go unanswered.

It's our Marketing and Sales Teams who know the industry well and have built trusting business relationships with our clients. Our clients know that if they want quality realtime captioning, it's VITAC who has delivered consistently superior captioning throughout the years. It is they on whom the realtime captioners depend to ensure a steady supply of programming.

It's our Management Team, who knows the business from the bottom-up and the top-down. Most of our department managers started their careers with VITAC and have been part of the team that has built our success through the years. They care about the clients, and they care about the employees. But most of all, they care about the service that we deliver every day to captioning audience, which has greatly strengthened our team approach to the way we serve our industry.

With over 20 years in the business, VITAC maintains the same commitment to quality captioning. We still administer entrance exams, hiring only the best realtime writers in the country. In over 20 years, our captioners have never seen a drop in their rates, which has been seen industry wide over the last several years.

In celebrating over 20 extraordinary years, VITAC appreciates the support of all of its employees, its independent contractors and the reporting profession as a whole. It is our hope that our steadfast commitment to captioning excellence, as well as to professional development of our employees, will ensure fulfilling realtime captioning career opportunities for generations to come.