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Recent Developments in Speech-to-Print Transcription Systems for Deaf Students Michael S. Stinson and E. Ross Stuckless 10 IN THE PAST twenty years, the number of deaf and hard of hearing students educated in classes with hearing students has increased significantly at both secondary and postsecondary levels (Moores 1992; Rawlings, Karchmer, and DeCaro, 1988; Walter 1992). A major concern for these students is the adequacy of classroom communication; communication difficulties facedl by deaf students in mainstreamed classes have been well documented (Jacobs 1977; Osguthorpe, Long, and Ellsworth 1980). Researchers and practitio:ners have noted that students face communication difficulties even when art interpreter and additional support services are available. Providing for adequate communication for deaf and hard of hearing students in the mainstream classroom is a complex and challenging task because students vary considerably in their communication needs. Some have grown up with sign language, and are most comfortable with an interpreter who incorporates as much American Sign Language into the interpreted message as possible. Others are hard of hearing students who do not k:now sign language but attempt to understand the instructor and classm.ates through lipreading and residual hearing. To satisfy the students' diverse communication needs, a reasonable approach would be to provide the support services best tailored to the individual student's needs, within such constraints as costs and availability. The traditional support services of interpreting and note taking adequately serve some students. Frequency-modulated (PM) systems are also helpful to many students. Real-time speech-to-print transcription systems may also be an effective form of support for IIlany students. In these systems, as words are spoken, they are transcribed into a text display. This contrasts with approaches that prepare the text ahead of time, such as most closed captioning of television programs. This approach recognizes the value of printed information for many deaf students. This chapter discusses recent trends in speech-to-text transcription" approaches using stenotype or similar machines, approaches using standard computer keyboards, and future directions of work in this area. 126 Speech-to-Print Transcription Systems 127 TRENDS In the past twenty years, several developments have made it possible to use speech-to-print transcription as a support for communication access of deaf students. Important early developments were the computer keyboard and monitor in the mid-1970s. Some of the technological advancements have focused on implementation of real-time conversion of phonetic abbreviations produced on stenotype machines into understandable English words. One of the first applications of this technology was the 1970 Supreme Court hearings on the Rowley case regarding provision of interpreting services in public schools. In the late 1980s laptop computers became widely available. Their portability resulted in the first computer-assisted note taking in which the note taker used a standard keyboard in the regular classroom. Stenotype machines have also been linked to laptop computers, enhancing their portability . In the late 1980s, abbreviation software also became available for regular keyboards. This made it possible for note takers to type in abbreviations for some words, while the deaf student viewed the full word (for example, ed transformed into education). Both steno-based and standard keyboard approaches are used in mainstream secondary and postsecondary settings. We are not aware of any systematic user survey of these systems. Often a system is used as a support service for a single student. Some programs that regularly support deaf students also frequently provide speech-to-text services. While demand for interpreting services continues to be predominant, over the past ten years there has clearly been an increased demand for speech-to-print transcription services in the classroom. STENO SYSTEMS Steno systems have been used for real-time captioning for television at the network level, real-time use with deaf and hard of hearing students in classes with hearing peers mostly at the college level, and real-time coverage of meetings, usually at the national level. For example, the system was used in plenary sessions at the 1995 International Conference on Education of the Deaf. These systems include a stenographer, who uses a twenty-four-key steno machine, a computer with software, and a text display. The code that the stenographer enters is not understandable except by trained stenotypists. Figure 10.1 shows examples of this coding and the corresponding English words. The computer program provides for automatic transcription of the code into understandable English. When the system is used in the classroom, a hard copy or electronically stored text file may be...

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