“I keep track of what my lecturers are saying thanks to subtitles on my tablet”

Jan Blum has been severely hearing impaired since birth; he was given his first hearing aid when he was four years old. People like him often find it difficult to keep track of what lecturers are saying. Crowded lecture halls and typical background noise – people whispering, clearing their throats and coughing – only make the situation worse.

Jan Blum therefore relies on the aid of online speech-to-text reporting. Blum has submitted an application for this assistance with the disability insurance (DI); it is financed by them. This involves Jan Blum being connected live via his tablet to two persons who can process sound from the lecture hall in the same way as the other students present. Everything that is spoken is transcribed in real time by the person doing the reporting into written text. This text is displayed on Jan Blum’s tablet, enabling him to read along, keep track of what is happening and actively participate.

The specialised reporters who assist Jan Blum in class work for Swiss Txt and are usually trained professionals with a lot of experience working on live assignments. Some also work as live subtitlers for the Swiss Television.

There are two main speech-to-text reporting methods. One is traditional written interpretation that involves the speech-to-text reporter typing everything that is said on a keyboard. The other is the respeaking method, where the reporter processes what they have heard via speech-to-text, i.e. with the help of a dictation system. This system has to be trained in advance as well as manually corrected in the live setting.

The respeaking method has its own peculiarities, one being that the software is error-prone for some terms and abbreviations. In such cases, the speech-to-text reporters substitute terms that are hard to dictate with predefined keywords that are rarely used in everyday language. One example is “Zack”. So they use “ZackLG” instead of LGBTQIA+. Saying “ZackLG” inserts LGBTQIA+ into the text.

Automatic speech-to-text technology is also constantly evolving and can serve as a useful aid. However, it is essential that the content conveyed is correct if subjects are of a highly specialised nature – like those covered during a course of study. In such cases, the speech-to-text reporters familiarise themselves with the subject in advance to make sure that Jan Blum doesn’t misunderstand anything. This is actually an advantage for Jan Blum as it enables him to understand complex material: “Even if I need a minute longer to get a firm grasp of something, I can reread what was said and skim the material until I get back to where I left off.”