Tribute To The Women In Black

The wonderful women in this photograph provide an invaluable service to students at Portland State University (PSU): All are professionally trained in closed captioning.

Closed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, computer screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who are hard-of-hearing or Deaf, though; it can be accessed by others, too. Captioning involves showing a transcription of the audio portion of a program or lecture as it occurs (either verbatim or in edited form).

Christy (left), and Kim (right), created Northwest Classroom Captioning (NCC) eight years ago. NCC contracts with PSU to provide services for hard-of-hearing and Deaf students. All have a wealth of experience in their field. Kim has been captioning 19 years, Christy 17 years, and Jonquil (middle) 7 years.

Becoming qualified as a closed captioner is no easy task. It takes years to build up a vocabulary in a steno machine. Additionally, people in the field must demonstrate they can type up to 200 words per minute with 97 percent accuracy.

This last year I have worked closely with Kim and Christy, though, I'm certain I'll work with Jonquil at some point. Not only are these women highly skilled in what they do, they are also great people. I have had the opportunity to cultivate a friendship with both Christy and Kim and am grateful for the support they have extended, particularly this last three months.