Information for Students Receiving Captioning Services

Captioning Coordinator:
Sarah Falsey
falsey@odos.wisc.edu

McBurney Front Desk:
(608) 263-6393 TTY, (608) 263-2741 (V)

McBurney captioning service providers are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the professional standards set by the National Court Reporting Association (NCRA) or the C-Print standards established by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (i.e. maintain confidentiality, render the message faithfully, refrain from interjecting personal opinions, and function in a manner appropriate to the situation, etc.).

Student Responsibilities

Students should request captioning services as soon as they register for classes each semester by using the Service Request Form for Regularly Scheduled UW Classes.

Arrive a few minutes early the first day of class to introduce yourself to the captioner. The captioner will be waiting for you in the classroom. Discuss seating options with your captioner. If you are using C-Print, you can get the laptop from the captioner.

Check your syllabi for videos being shown at the beginning of the semester. You should contact your professor to find out if the videos are captioned. If the professor is unsure if the video is captioned or if the video is not captioned, you should refer them to the Media Accessibility Letter that was sent to them at the beginning of the semester, or have them contact Sarah Falsey, Captioning Coordinator. Captioners depend on preparing for class. If they have to caption a video live, the quality of the message produced may be compromised.

If you will be late to class, immediately call the McBurney Center front desk. Specify the class that you will be late for and the time at which you will arrive to class. The McBurney Center will make every effort to notify the captioner assigned to stay until you arrive.

The captioner will wait 15 minutes from the start time of a scheduled assignment. If you do not arrive to class by this time, the captioner will leave and it will be considered a "no show".

A No Show is when a student misses class without any form of prior notification to the McBurney Center.

An Early Cancellation is when the student has cancelled services with the McBurney Center at least 48 business hours in advance.

A Late Cancellation is when a student gives less than 48 business hours notice that he/she will not be attending class.

Occasional absences are understandable. However, captioning services will be temporarily suspended for any course section (lecture, discussion, lab) when a student has 2 consecutive "no shows". You will need to communicate with Sarah Falsey in order to reinstate services.

If the captioner assigned to your class is unable to attend, McBurney will make every effort to schedule another captioner. There is a shortage of captioners in Wisconsin. If there are no captioners available, we will attempt to audiotape the class and transcribe it as soon as possible.

Communicate with your captioner! Discuss your preferences and concerns directly with the captioner, and contact Sarah Falsey if your concerns are not resolved.

You will receive a mid semester email asking you to complete a survey providing feedback regarding the captioners you are currently working with. We take the information you provide seriously and use the surveys as a tool to improve our services. Please fill the surveys out completely and honestly.

Transcripts

Transcripts are provided by request. You can request transcripts from your captioner, and they should be sent to you via email within 48 hours.

Requesting Captioners

If you have additional captioning requests, such as field trips, extra or optional classes, review sessions, etc. it is imperative that you complete the Service Request Form for Other Academically-Related Requests, with as much advance notice as possible. Staff may be out of the office, so using the official service request form automatically sends your request to multiple DHH staff to ensure your request is processed as soon as possible.

If you have a schedule change such as a class cancellation, time, or room change, contact Sarah Falsey and the McBurney Front Desk as soon as possible.

Captioners do not necessarily know or note cancellations announced during class, listed in the syllabus, or written on the board. It is YOUR responsibility to directly inform Sarah Falsey about all schedule changes.

Contact the McBurney front desk if the captioner does not show up for class, or contact Sarah Falsey if the captioner is consistently late for class.

All of your extra-curricular (non-academic) captioning service requests should be made to the department or organization hosting the related activity or event. The McBurney Center coordinates captioning services only for academically required activities. You can refer UW departments and units to McBurney’s web page describing How a UW Department or Unit Provides Interpreting or Captioning.

Observations and Captioner Interns

As McBurney increases opportunities to offer observations and professional development to pre-professional captioners, the DHH Program may schedule captioning students and interns to your classes. Please notify Sarah Falsey if you do not want observations or interns in any of your classes.

Captioner Responsibilities

Captioners may at times need to share classroom accommodation-related information with other campus staff on a "need to know" basis. On a regular basis, the DHH staff follow a team approach to providing effective services. Because of our collaborative approach, there will be times when service providers share typically confidential information about students and their accommodations for the purpose of improving the quality of services.

The captioner will not type if you are not present in the room. (The role of the captioner is to provide equal access to the classroom. A hearing student does not have access to the message when he/she is not present in the room.)

McBurney

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