Students, industry awaiting fate of Canada’s only captioning, court reporting program

A stenograph machine. (Tara Teves)

Stenographers, captioners and those who depend on their services are waiting to learn the fate of Canada’s only post-secondary program.

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton has spent the summer analyzing data and gathering stakeholder feedback about its Captioning and Court Reporting diploma program, which it paused in May along with 17 other programs.

Next month, NAIT will recommend resuming, changing or cutting each of the programs to the polytechnic’s academic council and board of governors, then Alberta’s minister of advanced education.

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“There isn’t much we can do until we know where the chips have fallen at NAIT,” said Kristen Di Rocco, a freelance certified shorthand reporter and the president of the Alberta Shorthand Reporters Association (ASRA).

“It’s such an unfortunate circumstance because I have been telling people for 15 years how proud I am that I graduated from NAIT.... It’s such a gem of a program.”

‘It puts NAIT on the map’

Twice a year, the ASRA hosts an industry conference for its 300 members. Most, if not all, of the attendees graduated from the same post-secondary school.

For as long as anyone who CTV News Edmonton spoke to for this story can remember – 15 years, at least – NAIT has offered Canada’s only English stenography program. It is both highly regarded and one of 19 accredited by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) headquartered in the U.S.

“It’s one of the top schools in Canada and the U.S. It has a really great reputation,” NCRA president Cindy Isaacsen told CTV News Edmonton.

For the last five years, the program has held a 100-per-cent employment rate.

“NAIT grads are hired everywhere. We’ve had graduates go to The Hague to work at the international courts there. We’ve had graduates work at human rights tribunals in Sierra Leone. We have graduates that do court proceedings in Singapore. We have graduates that caption all kinds of live TV programs,” added court reporter Elise Eichmuller, who earned her NAIT diploma in 2008 and has had 2,675 people sign her petition to save the program.

“It puts NAIT on the map. It puts Alberta on the map.”

After the first of two years at NAIT, during which students have been introduced to the stenotype and begun to learn an expanded legal and medical vocabulary, they can type at least 140 words per minute and earn a Court Transcription Certificate. This certificate can qualify someone to work in the Alberta court system as a transcriptionist or scopist, but so does prior experience in producing transcripts. The certificate program is still being offered and is not a part of the review. Over the past five years, the certificate program has averaged a 76-per-cent employment rate.

Graduates of the diploma program can type at least 225 words per minute on a stenotype, a machine with 22 phonetic keys. This is roughly four times as fast as the average typist on a QWERTY keyboard. The diploma and certificate programs were separated in 2022-23 following a review of the program in 2018-19 to create a pathway to entry-level positions, NAIT says.

• ‘Frustration and anger’ over pause of unique program at NAIT: student

Motivation behind review

NAIT attributed the most recent review to “shifts in enrollment, international student policy and rising costs.” The school told CTV News Edmonton its decision to pause and review the diploma program specifically was informed by curriculum and program structure “concerns,” applicant demand, reduced labour market demand and growing costs.

NAIT declined CTV News Edmonton’s requests for an interview and more details. In a statement, a spokesperson said the school “must ensure our programs are of high quality, sustainable and are able to scale to meet demand,” as well as create room for new programs.

A spokesperson said its review will consider several criteria: applicant and enrolment demand and trends, retention, graduate employment outcomes, student satisfaction, economic impact and long-term alignment, viability, resource impact and industry needs.

However, ASRA says it received more information from NAIT in response to a 195-page package of letters of support the association gathered from working professionals, students, lawyers, and others.

According to Di Rocco, NAIT’s letter talked about aligning the program with the needs of students and the industry. It also cited low and declining enrollment, high delivery costs, and a low transition rate from the certificate program to the diploma program.

Di Rocco told CTV News Edmonton this was the first time she had heard concerns about the program. The 2011 graduate acknowledged it is costly to deliver because of the stenograph machines and accompanying software.

About the transition rate between the first and second years, she said: “This is a hard skill. It’s not for everybody.”

But she and Eichmuller believe NAIT keeping the first-year certificate program demonstrates its lack of knowledge about the court reporting industry.

“It would be safe to say that there is not one single student that registered into the first year thinking that they’re just going to get that first-year certificate and be a transcriptionist and then that’s it. Because you don’t need a certificate to be a transcriptionist in Alberta... and you also don’t need to learn the shorthand machine skill to be a transcriptionist. And yet they’re still teaching that in the first year that they’re keeping,” Eichmuller said.

“It just feels like they made a bunch of decisions about our industry without knowing anything about our industry,” Di Rocco added.

Canada’s need for captioners

That Canada could potentially not have any school offering captioning education is frightening to Cindy Gordon, the executive director for the Edmonton branch of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA).

Hard of hearing herself, Gordon has used captioners at board and staff meetings, conferences, workshops, weddings, funerals and more.

“Those of us who can’t hear clearly rely on that written word to supplement hearing aids, cochlear implants. They don’t give us our hearing back,” she said.

According to CHHA, three million Canadians use captioning services. Hearing loss is considered Canada’s fastest-growing chronic condition, with age and increased exposure to noise contributing factors.

Like the court reporting industry, Gordon fears attrition. She believes the death of NAIT’s captioning program would make Canadian society increasingly inaccessible and thereby alienate those who are hard of hearing.

She says her numerous letters to NAIT advocating for the retention of the captioning program have gone unanswered — a “slap in the face” since she sits on the program’s advisory board.

NAIT also reviewed the Captioning and Court Reporting program 15 years ago.

At the time, Di Rocco was a student. Eichmuller was just a few years into her career. Gordon – leading the local CHHA branch then, too – participated in a protest with picket signs at one of NAIT’s meetings.

“We had signs that said, ‘We love our captioners,’” Gordon recalled.

“I think some of them truly did take it to heart and that won it. And I thought, ‘OK, they got it.’ Then here we are, 15 years exactly later.”

In its statement to CTV News Edmonton, NAIT said, “The decision to pause this program was not a reflection of the value of the program, its dedicated staff, or the careers it supports. We recognize the contributions captioners and court reporters make to society, and we are proud of the many graduates who have gone on to meaningful, impactful work in this field.”

Industry outlook

The federal government’s labour market analysis groups court reporting and captioning together. According to the most recent data, 7,900 Canadians were employed as court reporters, medical transcriptionists and related occupations in 2023. Nearly half – 48 per cent – were at least 50 years old.

The Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS) estimates this field will see 5,800 job openings between 2024 and 2033, fuelled mostly by replacement demand. However, it expects one quarter of new jobs will be created in two growing sectors: health care, and management, administrative and support services.

Those who spoke to CTV News Edmonton said both court reporters and captioners have long dealt with questions about the viability of their industries because of technology like voice recognition systems and artificial intelligence. But they say there is no contest between the technology and humans.

In a court room or in a Zoom meeting, the existing technology struggles to keep up with multiple speakers and accents, can’t fill in gaps on a record created by ambient noise, and is vulnerable to equipment failures and security breaches, the experts all said.

The court reporters also argue technology cannot be held responsible like humans.

“Divorce is a good example because now I know your children’s names, I know their ages, I know where they go to school, I know their extracurricular activities, and where they attend them and what times. I am an officer of the court; I’m going to take care of that information,” Di Rocco said.

“It’s really important to me that we’re professionals and we have standards and we have bylaws and we have codes of ethics.”

The other major benefit of a person trained on a stenograph machine is their ability to produce a transcript in real time.

In the real world, this enables Gordon and others who are hard of hearing to participate in important settings, like meetings and classes. But captioning also helps her do something as simple as watch TV.

“We rely on these guys to do this job for us and for us to be part of society. I can’t stress enough that without it, we’re just not a part anymore,” Gordon said.

In the court system, court reporters are “essential” to criminal trials, according to Paul Moreau, a lawyer of 35 years and the past president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association.

“In this context, an inaccurately transcribed word or phrase could lead to a total reversal or misunderstanding of the meaning of the evidence. That can lead to issues on appeal or lead to a wrongful conviction.”

In 2023, the Alberta government created a triage system to assign court reporters to the highest priority trials: jury trials, murder and manslaughter trials, special requests from the judiciary, and longer judge-only trials.

“The current triage system is working well, and the ministry has been able to cover all court reporter requests from the Court of King’s Bench,” Alberta Justice press secretary Heather Jenkins said in an email, adding that the need for court reporters varies depending on the trial schedule.

Moreau said this isn’t a fair portrayal of the need of court reporters, since Alberta’s courts have already begun adjusting for an anticipated labour shortage with the triage system.

“The criminal defence bar is supportive of the idea that the government has a public service responsibility to deliver certain services, part of which is a justice system that functions well. And court reporters are an integral part of a well-functioning justice system, and therefore the government has an obligation to support what is necessary to produce that,” Moreau said. “So if the government needs to provide some funding to NAIT to support this program, they ought to do that.”

Hope for the next generation

The court reporters CTV News Edmonton spoke to, while critical of the long-term effects of Canada losing its court reporting program and how NAIT chose to conduct the review, were most frustrated on behalf of students: students who spent time and money completing the first year of NAIT’s program and didn’t get to earn a diploma, students who were still accepted for the certificate program this fall, and future students who may never have the opportunity.

“It’s (NAIT’s) right to not carry the program, but they didn’t have to go about it this way,” Di Rocco said.

Court reporting has proven to be a very rewarding career for her and the others: interesting, and sometimes exciting when they are at the centre of a historical moment; well paying, which is a point of pride in a mostly female industry; fulfilling, in terms of their contributions to society.

“Every day is a different story. I’ve had a chance to sit in on lots of different trials, like the Coutts trial down in Lethbridge... a lot of the major murder trials in the city, a lot of the major fraud trials,” Eichmuller said.

“I just hope that there’s some way the next generation of court reporters coming up can reap the rewards like I did.”

In its letter of support, the NCRA offered to work with NAIT and ASRA to explore possible solutions like updating the curriculum or moving to a hybrid delivery, which is used frequently in the U.S.

“Is it a money issue? Is it that you’re not getting enough people? If it’s that you’re not getting enough people, then maybe we need to do a better job of marketing. How can we help?” Isaacsen asked.

Her organization has a student education committee and has invested in recruitment tactics like free introductory courses.

“Let’s collaborate together so that we can help you make the program better. We have that information. We have the tools.”

ASRA met with NAIT in early August.

“To be fair to NAIT, they heard us, they listened to us, and they asked good questions. I think they’re taking the review part of this seriously,” Di Rocco told CTV News Edmonton.

So, ASRA is preparing for the worst-case scenario by looking for another institution that would be willing to offer a court reporting and captioning program — if needed.

Di Rocco said, “There just isn’t a world in our mind where we don’t have a court reporting school in Canada. We’re going to have to figure something out.”