Most of the estimated 50,000 court reporters in the United States work in court or as freelancers hired to report pretrial depositions. Their job has two parts. First, reporters capture the words spoken by everyone during the proceeding. And second, they prepare a transcript of the proceeding. The transcript helps safeguard everyone's rights in the legal process. When litigants want to exercise their right to appeal an unfavorable decision, they will rely on the transcript to provide an accurate record of what transpired during their case. 

Court reporters are taking their skills and technology to another level by providing instant transcripts on computer screens as the trial or deposition is going on. Known as "realtime voicewriters," this process allows court reporters using speech technology to produce English text instantly. The text is then displayed on computer monitors or projection screens for viewing by larger groups. It is especially helpful in providing deaf or hearing-impaired people with the same legal benefits as hearing persons.

Court reporters - including deposition reporters and broadcast captioners - earn an average of more than $60,000 a year according to statistics provided by the National Court Reporters Association. The U.S. Department of Labor projects that court reporting job opportunities will grow as fast as the average for all occupations through 2012 .

Broadcast/Closed Captioning
A skilled voicewriter operating as a broadcast captioner monitors newscasts or television programs and captures the words of the speaker(s) by repeating (parroting) into the speech recognition technology software resident on his/her computer. The training to reach the accuracy demanded in this field is extensive and difficult, but the financial rewards are attractive.The field of captioning expanded because of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which empowered the Federal Communications Commission to regulate closed captioning. In August 1997 the FCC implemented Section 305, which requires that by January 1, 2006, 95 percent of all new live programming must be captioned.

To accommodate this change in government policy, captioning companies and broadcasters will need qualified voicewriters to caption tens of thousands of hours of live programming every week. The speech recognition software is available in the major foreign languages and the demand for these skilled professionals is dramatically increasing.  Verbatim Careers Institute is only training in English and Spanish at the moment.

 Offline Captioning
The voice writer captions pre-recorded video programming such as movies and television programming. They must possess good English and computer skills in addition to learning time codes and how to synchronize them with the captions.  Most of this work must be done in the offices of the employer due to the extensive equipment needed to perform these operations.

Open Captioning - CART Providers
Deaf and hard-of-hearing students in colleges and universities all over the country have the right, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, to request the accommodation of a realtime voicewriter to assist them in their classes while attending school. One of the marvelous advances with emerging technology in the last decade is that we have eliminated distance as a barrier to access. Regardless of where you are, if you have access to telephone lines or the Internet, voicewriters can provide this service. In some areas, these providers are called Remote CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) providers. 

General Transcription
These trained voice writers can now perform the same tasks as those using word processors, but instead of stroking one key at a time on a keyboard, the voicewriter can now speak into a microphone to accomplish the task in a much shorter time. Employment opportunities here are endless, but the user will likely need to provide his/her own computer system and microphone in the workplace. Again, some work can be done from the home.