Fact · Accessibility and health
The U.S. Department of Justice's ADA guidance defines real-time captioning, also called computer-assisted real-time transcription or CART, as a service similar to court reporting in which a transcriber types what is said into a computer that projects the words onto a screen.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“Real-time captioning (also known as computer-assisted real-time transcription, or CART) is a service similar to court reporting in which a transcriber types what is being said at a meeting or event into a computer that projects the words onto a screen.”
ADA Requirements: Effective Communication, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, ADA.gov, 2026, Aids and services section.
Open the original- What it measures
- The passage appears in a list of aids and services for communicating with people who are deaf or hard of hearing, next to open and closed captioning and captioned telephones.
- What it does not show
- The definition describes the service, not its accuracy or delay. Captioning quality depends on the transcriber and on the audio.