Stenographer
A trained professional who produces verbatim text of spoken content using a stenography machine — the traditional human captioner role.
Stenographers use shorthand-based stenography keyboards that allow them to type at speeds matching natural conversation (200+ WPM). Trained stenographers produce captions in real time at accuracy rates above 98%.
Stenographers are the traditional providers of CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) services. Their work remains the accuracy gold standard for live captioning, particularly for legal, medical, and broadcast contexts.
Live event organizers continue to hire stenographers for high-stakes content (keynotes, public-meeting broadcasts). Most event programs now use a hybrid model: automated captioning as the default, stenographers reserved for sessions where accuracy is paramount.