At a time when technology has made many advances in the voice recognition arena, surprisingly the one profession it has not impacted is the court reporter; this skill set continues to be in demand.
GateWay Community College is the only program in Arizona that is certified by the National Court Reporters Association and fully accredited. Graduates can earn an Associate of Applied Science Degree or a Certificate of Completion.
Becoming a court reporter is almost like learning an entirely new language, one that is not dying anytime soon, according to Stephanie Stearman, Director of the program. High-paying careers are available in judicial reporting, scoping, broadcast closed captioning and transcription.
The program started in 1975 when the Arizona Court Reporters Association approached Maricopa Community Colleges to start an affordable program.
“We’re one of the few community colleges in the country that offers this kind of training,” she said. “There’s a huge need for court reporters all across the United States in all 50 states.”
Despite contrary myths, recent technology in speech recognition and talk-to-text is not decreasing the need for court reporters, according to Stearman.
“Voice recognition isn’t nearly where it needs to be for a verbatim record of judicial proceedings,” Stearman said. “For example, speech recognition cannot decipher voices that talk over each other in court and struggles with different dialects.”
Additionally, voice recognition software typically must be calibrated to each speaker. This new technology falls flat in an industry where accuracy is of utmost importance.
“As long as you have a human being whose life is on the line, you need to have a human being taking the record,” Stearman said.
Students in the class go through a rigorous program, attending class every weekday, year-round. By the end of the program, students must write on their steno machines at 225 words per minute and have a minimum of a 95 percent accuracy rate.
“In any other discipline in any college, a 94.9 percent would be an A. In this program, it’s a fail,” Stearman said.
Students also learn about the legal system, English and grammar, medical and legal terminology, and software information.
After graduating from the program, students may become freelance court reporters, seek employment with a court or judge, or work in the broadcasting industry.
“You’re going to be hard pressed to find a program that has the faculty that we do, the quality of graduates that we have, with the low tuition price,” Stearman said.
To learn more about GateWay’s court reporting program, visit gatewaycc.edu/court-reporting