On Tuesday, Feb. 11, U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross (FL-15) recognized National Court Reporting and Captioning Week, Feb. 16-22, in a floor speech at the U.S. House of Representatives. The national celebration is sponsored by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), the country’s leading organization representing stenographic court reporters and broadcast captioners, and is designed to highlight the contributions of stenographic court reporters and captioners to society and to showcase the growing number of career opportunities that exist in the court reporting and captioning fields.
“Today I rise to honor National Court Reporting and Captioning Week, taking place from February 16 to February 22, a week that serves to recognize the value and importance that court reporters and captioners have made in American society,” said Ross, who noted that his own cousin has worked as a court reporter for many years. “As a lawyer who has spent over 25 years as a litigator I have a profound respect and appreciation for those who preserve the official record.”
National Court Reporting and Captioning Week will be marked with educational events nationwide, including a grassroots social media campaign, presentations at high schools across the country about court reporting and captioning career opportunities and community demonstrations such as producing transcripts of veterans’ oral histories.
“Court reporters, broadcast captioners, and Communication Access Realtime Translation, or CART-captioners serve an integral role in my home state of Florida and throughout the United States,” said Ross.
Stenographic skills translate to a multitude of career options—including court reporting, live-event captioning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, captioning for broadcast and specialized videography — and the strong marketplace demand means court reporting offers an abundance of long-term career opportunities.
“National Court Reporting and Captioning Week is NCRA’s way to spotlight for the public the importance of what court reporters and captioners do, and we commend Representative Ross for recognizing that court reporting, captioning, and CART are careers that are a vital part of the lifeblood of law and culture in our society,” said NCRA President Nancy Varallo, RMR, CRR, from Grafton, Mass.
For more information, visit NCRA.org. Career information about the court reporting profession — one of the leading career options that do not require a traditional four-year degree — can be found at CareersInCourtReporting.com.
