Captioning The Word

Here are some comments from people who have seen CTW in action:

"Recently I attended New Life Church in Milton, Ontario for a service which was real-time captioned by a team of court stenographers volunteering their time. To my knowledge, no other church in Canada offers real-time captioning. The church has a vision that all persons with a hearing loss will be able to attend services and 'hear' what is going on."

Joan Miller, Listen/Ecoute

"A team of volunteers at a little church in Milton is bringing new meaning to the idea of community worship. If their idea catches on, they will open another door for millions of North Americans barred from fully participating in services because they are hard of hearing."

"At New Life Church, the music is gospel, the congregation enthusiastic. Each word spoken by Pastor Dan Rogge and each response from his parishioners appears like film titles at the bottom of the picture on two colour television monitors placed strategically among worshippers."

"The words, or 'captions' appear courtesy of the volunteer team of trained stenographic court reporters, who are donating their time and skills to translate the spoken word via computer into a visual message."

Helen Henderson, The Toronto Star 

"My biggest problem has always been when the congregation speaks back to the preacher and all I can see is back of their heads. At these times I am lost. But, in this church, I was able to follow everything that the audience had to say by watching the captioning, which made me feel more a part of the congregation."

"Then, following the singing section, Pastor Dan preached from the Bible and he was very easily followed. The bulletin handed out by the ushers prior to the service listed an outline of Pastor Dan's service. This outline listed the sermon title and other important aspects of his sermon. The outline also contained 'fill in the blanks' which made Pastor Dan's sermons interactive and more fun than only sitting and listening all of the time. All of his messages were closed captioned."

"Pastor Dan and his wife are aware that Milton has a large deaf population base, and they hope that in the near future more deaf and hard of hearing will attend the services. Many deaf and hard of hearing do not attend church simply because they cannot fully understand what is going on around them. However, I personally guarantee you will not feel lost when the message is being delivered from the pulpit in this church.

"Their belief, and mine, is that 'communication is the key element in bridging the gap between the hearing world and the deaf world."

Paul Dewling, Deaf Canada Today