A court reporter or court stenographer, also called stenotype operator, shorthand reporter, or law reporter, is a person whose occupation is to transcribe spoken or recorded speech into written form, using shorthand, or machine shorthand to produce official transcripts of court hearings, depositions and other official proceedings. Court reporting companies primarily serve private law firms, local, state and federal government agencies, courts, trade associations, meeting planners and nonprofits.

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As mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act, all public matters, whether live meetings or live broadcasting, has to be made available to every American citizen equally and freely.   With that was born Closed Captioning and CART Reporting through stenographic means.

 

Professional stenographic writers provide instantaneous captions for live news broadcasts, etc., usually working from the comfort of their home or sometimes at a news station.  Also, CART reporters (Computer Aided Rapid Transcription), provide access to members of the public at meetings, in classrooms (high school and college), so that they can participate in the discussion or matter at hand.  It is a very lucrative area of the stenographic world of Reporting, in high demand with great opportunities professionally and monetarily nationwide.