Transcription Machine: The Political Life of Captions

• In Event: Beyond the Prosthetic Imaginary: New Intersections between STS and Disability Studies - I

Abstract

In the proposed paper, I will undertake a consideration of the material artifacts that enable stenographers to caption speech in real-time for d/Deaf students. These artifacts are primarily comprised of hand-written annotations marked on post-it notes, personal notes, and sometimes loose pieces of paper by the stenographers in situ. The annotated artifacts are generated when the stenographer labors to pair spoken speech with steno-codes for their dictionary software. The steno-codes (known as ‘steno form’) are compared to the mid-century practice of written shorthand, which in conjunction with the stenographic machine dates back to the turn of the 20th century. This approach to the formation of such real-time access provision reveals the link between the historical practice of shorthand and digital coding that pertains to the success of the information economy today. During this transition, producing real-time access for d/Deaf and hard of hearing users has become increasingly gendered, disciplined, and even machinic. Despite the rise of automation, the idiosyncratic paring of the stenographer and their machine avoids the process of standardization. In assessing the value of these material artifacts, I therefore look towards the ephemeral note as part of an infrastructure of access, bound not only by structural conditions or the limits of the technology itself, but by their relation to what I call ‘collegial infrastructure’ and other complex forms of participation. In remarking on collegial relations specifically, this essay considers how these artifacts can inform an intersectional analysis of crip labor practices in the production of real-time access.

Author

• Louise Hickman, UC San Diego Department of Communication & Design Lab