The Good Reporter Fallacy

I’ll just come out and say it. There are folks among us that think speech recognition technology is going to beat court reporters. I’ll even go so far as to say I personally believe that the technology will eventually do what we do.

But first on the issue of technology: Read what they aren’t saying. The technology is 95 percent accurate! But what was the setting under which it was accurate? Was there an air conditioner blowing overhead? Was someone printing directly behind the recording machine? Were there people speaking over each other? Did the computer accurately designate who spoke? Was the computer able to handle an unidentified speaker? Were there multiple speakers at different distances? Did the test take place in rooms of various sizes and acoustics? Yes, it is my sincere and honest belief that someday technology will be there to seamlessly do all of this, but there is no telling when. Until it is there, it is smoke. They’re blowing smoke just like everyone else who wants to sell a product. When it is there, we still fight to keep the jobs we have.

And that’s the topic of today’s missive. So some believe we’ll be overtaken by technology, and they are saying: Do not invite people into this dying field. That makes sense if you take the fact that it is dying as true and completely irreversible. Our current crisis in the reporting world is a reporter shortage, and their answer is: Don’t do anything and ride this career to the bitter end. There will be jobs for the good reporters.

But what is that good reporter? A realtimer? There are more non-realtime jobs than realtime jobs. Even today, there are more non-realtime jobs. So even if everyone is a good reporter tomorrow, there aren’t enough jobs for you if we give up that non-realtime work. Sorry. It’s a delicate balance. Reporter shortage means it’s easier for customers to swap to recording because there simply aren’t enough of us to meet a demand. Reporter glut means we suffer because high supply generally means lower cost (wage).

Well, right now, at this second, we are facing a shortage, and in the great wide world of life, we have better chances if there are more of us. Consider NCRA’s old strength of what I’m told was 30,000 reporters versus today’s — whatever — 15,000. That was literally double the budget to fight for reporters. Double the constituents when politicians ask how many people they are representing. Double pretty much everything.

So you can get up and introduce this field to somebody and be a part of ending the shortage, or you can sit it out and see what happens, and we can be friends either way, but I think it’s best to act. It’s very simple statistically: Can’t win if you don’t try. People play lotto on that same principle, so isn’t a shot at saving thousands of careers worth trying too? Look at politics. When your preferred politician or proposed legislation fails, do you just drop everything and say “I support this because it’s happening.” Maybe, but according to my Facebook, not likely!

If you’re an average person, you matter. History was built on average people. Armies are built out of average people. Battles were won when average people got the enemy army to route. The computer technology we use started with overall average programmers using punch cards to give computers simple instructions!

If you’re above average, show us. We average people want great leaders. We want problem solvers and talented people to look up to. There’s a market for greatness and a world of ways to uplift people. What if someone could design a steno program that got someone out in months, not years? What if someone could design a political campaign capable of sustaining our jobs even when the technology does what we do?

Be a creator. Be an inventor. Be an innovator. Support the people fighting for you. Support the people around you. Support yourself. Do what people say can’t be done. Be a winner. And remember, besides thermonuclear war, there are few times you can win by not playing.

Learn To Caption – Real Realtime by Anissa

So I received an email from and have read at least two testimonials about Learn To Caption. I feel it is important to promote all educational materials. I’ve extensively promoted the free basic learning materials at OpenSteno so now that I see something popping up and positioning itself to teach working reporters captioning, realtime, and possibly CART, I want it to be out there.

In New York City I’m told there’s a devastating need for CART providers. There are so many deaf or hard of hearing people that need the services of a professional CART writer that it’s not funny. But I am a true believer that the more we get the word out there, the more we can get people to be what’s coined Real Realtime. Though I first saw the phrase used by MaryAnn Payonk as far back as 2011, Anissa’s materials say that’s what she’s teaching people to be, so if you want to get Real Realtime give it a shot and feel free to comment about it here.

Am not in any way affiliated with Anissa.

The Frank N Sense Monster

Came to my attention maybe a year ago that there is an overall interesting blog, Wake Up NCRA. It’s interesting because it’s, as best I can tell, anonymous, someone very concerned about the field, and someone willing to be pretty honest about their feelings. They even take a page from my book, or perhaps I from theirs, and use the word we occasionally so you can’t really tell for sure whether it’s one person or many.

For some the mix of anonymity and honesty doesn’t make sense, but there are honest reasons for wanting anonymity. Batman says it toward the end of the Dark Knight Rises, the mask is not for you, it’s to protect the people you care about. In a real world context, if “they” know who you are they can apply pressure. An agency can “fire” you. Your family can go from pretty comfortable to struggling. You don’t have to be saying anything wrong, just something someone doesn’t like. It’s private sector and it’s the last effective method on censoring someone’s free speech.

All that said, I’ve used the term monster, so I ought to get explaining that. I had linked the article in question at the top. It’s actually perfect. It talks about a group apparently calling itself SOS Plan B, talks about how this group seems to be interested in audio recording, and says straight out: The plan B is steno needs to be the gold, silver, bronze standard. I have mirrored this concern in the past. Realtime will mean nothing if it’s the last of stenographic reporters. Chess is kind of hard to win if all you have left are the king and queen.

Then out comes the monster. The author says the solutions to the reporter shortage are firms paying reporters a fair wage, firms networking, and the shortage scaling back the contracts that sell us so cheaply. And all these things I believe in pretty deeply. I’d love it if that would happen, but I do not believe it is realistic.

The rates will always be a struggle because companies will always want more money.
The companies network now and from my experience it always ended up with me taking a job with ridiculous conditions like don’t say who you work for, change your transcript from your usual 60 page layout to our 30 page layout that we definitely don’t change back, and get an order form but don’t talk to the client.
The shortage will make it easier for firms to switch to electronic reporting and there will be fewer of us in opposition. And this is where I just get confused. It takes probably a minimum of a year to train a court reporting savant. It doesn’t take them much time at all to train someone to set up equipment and take notes during a proceeding. Our barrier to entry is already worlds higher, and if the jobs don’t get covered, people become more okay with alternatives.

That’s the monster. This is an apath’s wet dream. Do nothing. Support the shortage, the whole train falls apart. Dave Wenhold was at a NYSCRA meetup years ago. Told us he did some advisory work for a group of officials elsewhere, some other state. They were unhappy with their conditions and wanted to strike. Being a pretty politically smart guy, his advice was do not strike. They struck. For two days the courthouse was down, and then they hauled in audio equipment, and that was the end of that. Was his story true? I don’t know. Was the message of his story powerful? Oh yes. If you’re not there to do the job, the powers that be will come up with some other way to get the job done. We are valuable. We are so valuable that I have a wonderful career with wonderful colleagues and a whole universe of talented contemporaries. But we are not irreplaceable in the eyes of the people that use us. We are a means to an end. And if we sit back and let stuff happen, we’ll be proverbial fish in a barrel. But what good am I if I do not offer some solutions to the shortage problem? Some of what we at Stenonymous have crafted up:

Promote all forms of stenographic education, from the traditional to the open source. I’m talking to you, NCRA.
Create more and better open source learning materials.
Create networks of people that can go to the high schools and promote court reporting. The logistics of funding this or finding volunteers is the major barrier.
Support the students heavily through formal and informal mentorship. Rework mentorship to include education about the market in which the reporter expects to work.
Shift association focus somewhat to educating reporters on business principles like negotiation, inflation, labor, et cetera. This is the ultimate battle. If expenses rise and income never does, the business, the reporter, becomes insolvent. Make business knowledge more ubiquitous so that reporters, legally considered to be on the same level as agencies, can actually have a chance here. I’m not talking your savants, I’m talking raise your bottom of the barrel people up so that they can be as good.

A lot of love to Frank N Sense. I know the logistics and long-term fruition of our ideas seem further away than yours. I know it’s harder to build than it is to sit back and hope for the best. It resonates better with people. Who wouldn’t want to just let the shortage happen and everything works out? But I don’t believe in my heart that that’s the way it’ll go. But I do believe there’s a way forward. I do believe that things can always get better. And I believe that we’ll all play an important role in making things better if we care to.

Law For Stenographers (NY)

We’re going to take a quick walk through all the law stenographers in NY might want to know. It’s not required that you know these things, but some of it may be relevant to you at some point and worth discussion. As a quick note, a lot of law regarding NYS cases can be found in the CPLR (Civil Procedure Law and Rules).

CPLR 2309, Oaths and Affirmations: This section dictates who can give oaths. It basically says anyone who can give an acknowledgment under the real property law.

CPLR 3113(a) and 3113(b) talk about before whom a deposition may be taken and describe how the officer administering the oath is supposed to act. It also goes at length to describe that the deposition is to continue without interruption and that objections are to be noted by the officer that swore in the witness or a person under their direction.

Real Property Law 301: This lists people that can take acknowledgments, and surprise, notaries can.

Brief warning: The answers you get from authority bodies can occasionally be wrong. This is not necessarily the fault of the authority body in this case. I was asking a question about the CSR (Certified Shorthand Reporter License) which is handled by a different part of the Department of State, as best I can tell, than the Notary License. This created the confusion in my warning example! If you’re going to ask an authority body a question, make sure you’re asking the right question to the right body.

Remote Swearing of Witnesses: Despite my warning above, this is an example of questions to an authority done right. Long story short, Notary Law says we cannot swear witnesses remotely, CPLR 3113(d) says we can. Well, I got an email from the Department of State, which as far as I know is the authority body for our Notary License, and they say we can remotely swear witnesses if it’s done properly under CPLR 3113(d).

Penal Law 210.30: A person is not allowed to say haha you got the oath wrong so I don’t have to tell the truth. Irregularities are no defense to perjury.

New York Wiretapping: It is a one-party consent state so audio is generally allowed. That said, if you leave the room while the audio is on then you’re not really a party and it could theoretically cause you problems. For recording in judicial proceedings see court rules 131 below.

Errors of transcriber waived: CPLR 3116(e) basically says errors are waived unless a motion is made in a reasonable amount of time. This is for all reporters and companies who have ever faced the lawyer who has a deposition and a year later complains about some deficiency or error with the transcript. Errors waived! If you’re ever sued for error or omission, this should be a serious line of defense.

CPLR 3116 generally: The CPLR 3116(b) provides that we’ve got to file the transcript and seal it and do all this BS. The bottom line is that in our usual stips in NY we waive this filing by the officer. Make life easy, make sure you have language waiving the filing of the transcript in your stips page if you use one.

CPLR 3115(b) and CPLR 3115(d) errors in oath/affirmation and disqualification: If you make an error in your oath or affirmation, it doesn’t make the whole thing null and void. An objection has to be made pretty much at the depo according to CPLR 3115(b). And a motion or objection has to be made in a reasonable amount of time from the point where, with due diligence, they would’ve learned you should be disqualified from giving an oath. Note that this doesn’t necessarily give you a free pass to shirk your responsibilities. In 1910, Bookman v City of New York 200 N.Y. 53 (N.Y. 1910) the court talked a bit about how it was important to give the oath in a lawful manner.

No speaking objections: The Uniform Rules Part 221 were revised some time ago to make depositions much more seamless. Basically they don’t get to have speaking objections except for when objections which would be waived if not interposed. It doesn’t matter much for you, except your usual stips page probably has something about it.

Redaction of Confidential Personal Information: Often in NY, freelancers feel obligated or become worried about redacting Confidential Personal Information. While it is true that we are often asked to and lawyers often stipulate that certain things should be redacted or truncated, it is not your direct legal responsibility. It is the responsibility of the filer of the document. If that fails, the court itself may redact information sua sponte.

You must be paid: General Business Law 399-cc basically says when an attorney of record orders a stenographic record be made, they have to pay for it. So this is for all my contemporaries who have been threatened with nonpayment over the years. They must pay you.

Civil Rights Law 52 – Witnesses being made to testify by subpoena may have a right not to have their testimony taped or broadcasted.

Part 108 Rules of the Chief Administrative Judge: This talks about rates and payment for official court reporters in NYS. Admittedly, not important for freelancers, but good food for thought with regard to discussions of pay and what people are paid for similar work.

Antitrust Law: A very brief summary of this is that in the United States competitors cannot collude to set prices. Price fixing among competitors upwards or downwards is illegal and considered anticompetitive. What this means is we cannot come together and say the rate should be 4.00 a page or don’t work for XYZ Agency unless they pay 5.00 a page because we as freelancers are considered competitors and that could be considered an agreement to set rates. This is also why our trade associations steer clear of rates discussions because the entire organization can be sunk by an antitrust suit.

No depositions on Sunday: The Notary Law packet, which is a bunch of laws thrown into a packet, quietly mentions towards the back that depositions may not be taken on Sunday. When I asked the Department of State they basically explained that Section 5 of the judiciary law says a court shall not conduct business on Sunday. In 1964 the Attorney General of New York released Opinion 103, which interpreted this to mean depositions couldn’t be held on Sunday. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a good website link, as the opinions indexed only seem to go back to 1995. I originally became interested in this topic because the New York Notary Law packet mentioned no depositions on Sunday but offered no other guidance.

Court Rules Part 131 generally prohibit audio-visual recording of judicial proceedings. Also see Part 29.

Sexual Harassment law. Everyone should know some of the basics I covered in my article on this, but more particularly, in 2018 the legislature amended the law. Freelancers are now supposed to be legally protected against sexual harassment.

Criminal Procedure Law Article 190 deals with grand jury proceedings and mandates that a certified stenographer is authorized to be present for grand jury proceedings. 190.25 deals with grand jury secrecy. Penal Law 215.70 makes unlawful disclosure an E felony. Penal Law 110 describes that an attempt to commit an E felony constitutes an A misdemeanor. See my article on recording of New York grand jury proceedings.

This amendment to Judiciary Law 390: The court had the power to make arrangements for deaf and hard of hearing jurors, lawyers, and litigants in New York but no mandate by law to do so. This mandated the court to use CART reporters or other means to assist people who need it. This passed and is law.

This proposed amendment to Judiciary Law 290: This amendment would have ensured the use of court reporters in New York City courts and is very important to us as a whole. It’s my belief that we should make this a legislative priority for reporters in New York, but as of writing has not passed, and to my knowledge, has not been put up for vote again. Notably it passed the NYS Senate but not the NYS Assembly.

Proposed amendment to Workers Comp Law 122: The workers comp board in NY unfortunately moved to tape recording and it was a serious blow to us in NYS. Tried to stop it by legislatively directing them to use stenographic court reporters. This was yes’d by the NYS Senate, yes’d by the NYS assembly, and vetoed by Governor Cuomo. If ever there’s a time to pass this again, I say we take it.

Proposed amendment to the CPL to make Senior Court Reporters peace officers. Honestly, politics aside, raising us to peace officer status would give us a good deal of power and responsibility.

The civil service law on eligible lists. Often people ask why eligible lists only last four years. This is why.

Please note that there is quite a lot of law I did not bother to mention here, mostly dealing with court stenographers, and that they must furnish the transcript to parties upon payment (Judiciary Law 300). There are also appellate rules (CPLR 5525) that talk about our transcripts. Unremarkable, but Judiciary Law 330 talks about how typists authorized by the district attorney may prepare our transcripts, which is likely from a time when we didn’t have computer-assisted transcription. There’s also an oddly specific law dictating what stenographers in the eighth judicial district must do, Judiciary Law 309. As far as I know and understand, these judiciary laws only apply to people employed by the courts. If you want more stenographer law, try using keywords in this law crawler program. Including all of it here would not really serve a purpose.

Know more New York law that should be here? Let me know. On that note, no federal laws have been posted but keep an eye out in the future for an FRCP (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) post.

Addendum:

Case law that supports stenographic reporters was brought to my attention. See People v Smith NY3d 2016 NY Slip Op 4973. Defendant complained of inadequate transcripts and court recordings, but appeal was sent back down due to failure to file an affidavit of errors.

A reader asked about TVB transcription rules. As of yet, the only thing I’m aware of here that might potentially relate to stenographers is 15 CRR-NY 155.3 (c).

Unsworn depositions, particularly on the federal side, can open up reporters to liability. See Dineen Squillante’s post on this. Looking forward to its publication in Vermont!

The Price of Perfection

This one goes out to my many perfect contemporaries. This one is for every perfectionist, and even some want-to-be perfectionists. There’s no easy way to say it, so let’s start off with a story about Morris. Morris is a perfectionist. Day after day, he takes the time to carefully perfect everything that he does. In fact, he’s got his commute timed, his work scheduled, and everything falls into place perfectly all the time. One day, Morris comes up with an idea, a perfect one, naturally, and begins to work on it. Except it isn’t perfect. It’s just missing something. He can’t release his creation like this. Morris’s perfect idea never sees the light of day because it just wasn’t perfect enough for him.

Why do we let great be the enemy of good? Why do we strive to be perfect when sometimes all the world needs is good enough? For some it’s a code of honor, for others a badge, and for a few, a compulsion. I’ve caught myself many times refusing to act, waiting to do something, or wanting a thing to have better conditions before I set off. Now I wonder, how many ideas in this world never come to fruition because they are never started? The old cliche, “once begun, half done” resonates here.

We can actually see this in history. Many great things came about through apparent happenstance, willingness to share the imperfect, or the imperfect contributions of a collective. The internet, penicillin, peanut butter. It is nice to romanticize and buy into the idea that there is some coordinated sentience pushing things along the “right” way, and that things happen because they’re meant to be, but ultimately every step forward comes with a new set of consequences, whether beneficial or malignant, and the solutions or next steps come from the people who are willing to eschew the cloak of perfection and take up the mantle of doing. So what is your next step? Will you await the perfect condition before contributing, or will you get out there and contribute to something? There’s a world of art, music, computers, steno, literature, and study. You need not despair if the thing you’re working on right now does not work out. There’s a world of things to do and see, but only for those willing to open their eyes to an imperfect world, and only for those willing to open their minds up to being imperfect.

The Limitations of Institution

If only a reader could experience that same sour feeling I have having to write this. Recently, I spotted a non-steno recording job on one of the court reporting groups. We have a deep disdain for that stuff because digital recording is making its way into pretty much any market it can and our strongest potential defenders, the big box agencies, can be pretty much fine with whatever happens because they can switch direction or become a recording firm. They’re only going to spend money on reporting for as long as they’re making money on reporting. We, as individuals, couldn’t make so easy a switch. The jobs would, in all likelihood, pay a lot less and force a lot of us out. We don’t have anybody fighting for us. We don’t have, individually, a great deal of money. And, for some reason, we refuse to support state and national organizations that could, given a better budget and a more robust membership, fight for us. So before I jump into the limitations of institution, let me just say, join one today! There’s a heck of a lot of power in a collective, and it is one avenue we must not ignore in bringing more people into the field.

But now it’s time to talk about the restrictions imposed on institutions. They can’t discuss prices for fear of being branded as price fixers and slapped with antitrust litigation. They can’t, on a whim, make posts or statements. Everything is controlled by a board, or bylaw, or some legal standard. In the end, this is good, because it ensures that members that join a reporting association can pretty much join and be comfortable that the board is going to do the right thing, or everyone will be able to see detrimental changes to the organization from a mile away and be allowed to yell, “stop! Stop!” In the end, this is also bad, because it makes some tactics or solutions unimaginable or unimaginably slow for an institution.

That’s where we, mostly free people, can come into play. I’ve been quite troubled in recent times. We have a great presence of reporters on Facebook. There are innumerable groups meant to support reporters and we’re doing fine there. But the internet is large, and we are losing ground in a lot of places. On Reddit and Quora the digital reporting folks and the resurgence of stenography in India have started to block us out. YouTube’s got a lot of Indian steno too. If you’re searching court reporting, you’re getting recorders. If you’re searching stenography, you’re getting at least some Indian content.

So the other day I saw a job for exactly one position for a digital recorder on Staten, and I posted it on Facebook on my own page and in a very large NYC jobs page with over 150,000 members. But I did that with an objective. Along with this one position, I made sure the words court reporting, stenography, and machine shorthand reporter hit that page. I made sure to say if you like legal proceedings, come do what I do, there are jobs open for real court reporters today. I accept that I’ll be told I’m wrong. I accept that I’ll be talked about behind my back. But I brought the words machine shorthand reporter in front of a potential 150,000 jobseekers in one post. Jobseekers with friends, and family, and all sorts of people who know people. Frankly, why do you think digital reporters are sitting on our Reddit? To draw people and say come, do what we do. I say to any of you, they have these recording jobs already, and they’re going to fill them, so it’s probably time for we who are not limited by institution to fight exactly the way they fight. Be where they are. Grab the attention of people they’re marketing to. Yeah, you can do that, but you can also become a machine shorthand reporter and do better! You can do better! You can be one of us! And as for why I didn’t just mention straight court reporting? The gates of that group of 150,000 jobseekers are high. They have strict rules about what can be posted and how it can be posted. I had to fit their mold, and I used the recorders to do it.

If you want reporting to be a viable option for a child, friend, or family member, it has to stay robust and attract students. We all know how hard it is to make it through school. A small percentage of people that see court reporting will try it. A small percentage of the people that try it will like it. A small percentage of the people that like it will be good at it. And finally, a percentage of the people who are good at it will make a career of it. If we don’t get a whole heck of a lot of people to see court reporting, we’re looking at a situation where we’re replaced with recorders out of necessity.

So if you see me out there doing something you don’t like, feel free to ask, feel free to denigrate, feel free to do whatever it is you do, but remember that most of that energy can be used to come up with bigger and better ideas than I ever had. Remember that this field needs you.

The Truths of Employability

For this purpose we define employability generally as ability to work and be “employed” as employees and independent contractors. There is no secret that I often write about how court reporters need to ask for more money, be confident, and negotiate for better benefits or conditions. It’s true. We constantly have market forces exerted on us to lower our expectations in terms of earnings, or make our deadlines tighter, or make our work harder. We are the polite opposition to those market forces. No, we will not work for free. No, we will not give away expedites. No, we will not reprint the entire transcript because your client disagrees subjectively with the potential interpretations arising from the placement of a comma.

But today there’s an important addition to all of that. Today it’s time to say out loud: In addition to demanding you be paid what you are worth, you must make yourself employable. It struck me as I read this Quora answer to the question, “What is the saddest truth about smart people?” The answer itself has a simple theme: Smart people can be the smartest people in the room, but can be unsuccessful and unhappy if they do not take on risks or new opportunities. Now I adapt to this to court reporting. Imagine you are now the fastest, most knowledgeable court reporter in all the world. Imagine you have nothing more to do or learn. Imagine that you are undoubtedly the best. Now imagine that you cannot write a resume or cover letter. You make great transcripts but your cover letters are just awful with misplaced words or rambling ideas. Who will an employer hire; the best court reporter in the world, or the one who knows how to write a resume? In all likelihood, the one who knows how to write, because they have the skill of being able to write, and that makes them employable.

So now it is my time to urge every student, every current reporter, and every non-reporter to do what a theory teacher once taught me: Never stop learning. You don’t have to learn to be the best x, or y, or z. You don’t have to discover new technologies or be a genius. You need only apply yourself to things that interest you. Take a step back and look at a job you really want. What kinds of things make a person employable for that position? You may find that there are a bunch of tangential qualities that can actually make you much more likely to land a position or career. Indeed, basic life skills, like writing a cover letter, go a long way to landing work. Be sure to spell check, double check, and/or have an honest friend review submissions you will make to an agency. I fondly recall a time when I applied to work at or with Reporter’s Ink (as of writing proper spelling) as a freelancer, and before that, I worked with Jaguar. They wanted a sample of my work, and so I provided it to them. They immediately insisted I use their layout, so I applied their layout, and sent the whole thing without checking. Turns out the swap from Jaguar to Reporter’s Ink’s layout stacked the lettering into one another. Succinctly, I lost myself a job opportunity because I didn’t check myself. Don’t be me, get the job, be employable, check yourself, and succeed!

Open Steno by Professional Writer Claire Williams

Though posted by me for the purposes of this site, this was written by Claire Williams, who can be found on Twitter @claireducky. Reference: Open Steno.

If you’ve ever served on a jury, been to a court hearing, or watched an episode of Law and Order, you may have noticed someone in the courtroom typing into a strange-looking machine. That person with the flying fingers is a stenographer, and their job is much more important than you might imagine. These behind-the-scenes professionals efficiently document the inner workings of our justice system, write closed captions for those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, and much more. In the past, you had to invest in specialized training and expensive equipment to become a stenographer. The volunteers at the Open Steno Project are trying to change that, however, by helping people learn stenography for free so they can use this valuable skill in their everyday lives.

To an untrained observer, shorthand writing systems might seem too complicated to be useful in the real world. However, stenography isn’t just for transcriptionists, court reporters, or the actors that play them on television. Typing on a traditional keyboard is fairly straightforward: one keystroke equals one character. Stenography works by pressing multiple keys together that represent a specific sound or syllable. Much like playing a piano, steno keys pressed together are referred to as “chords”, and these chords vastly increase potential writing speed. While an average person can type about 40 to 60 words per minute, and skilled typists average between 70 to 120 words per minute, someone trained in stenography writes well over 200 words per minute. This is even faster than most people speak. Just imagine how much your productivity would increase if you could type four or five times faster than you do now.

Stenography may appear to be a dying art in a digital age, but the skill is actually more relevant today than ever before. Speech-to-text software cannot compete with the accuracy and contextual writing of a trained stenographer. If you’ve ever tried using a dictation application on your phone or computer, you’re probably familiar with the technology’s limitations. Frequently, documents produced by speech recognition software are littered with spelling, grammar, and syntax errors—all of which make the editing process take even longer. Let’s face it: artificial intelligence systems aren’t really all that intelligent yet, and even the best-trained computer can never interpret a human voice perfectly. To do that, you need to have a human ear to listen and a human mind to translate speech with complete accuracy.

While stenography is commonly associated with legal professions like court reporters, shorthand writing actually has a broad range of applications outside of the courtroom. Along with incredible speeds, stenography provides serious advantages in ergonomics and functionality over a traditional QWERTY keyboard or the Dvorak Simplified keyboard. Instead of lettered keys, the chords on a steno machine can be customized and mapped to practically anything, including macros, phrases, symbols, or even snippets of code. This feature alone makes stenography infinitely more flexible than traditional writing methods. Additionally, fewer keystrokes mean less movement and stress on the hands and wrists, making stenography a great skill to learn for anyone who spends a lot of time typing or is concerned about repetitive motion injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome.

Writers, journalists, and administrative professionals could use stenography to increase their typing speed. Computer programmers, mathematicians, and scientists could use it to help write documentation or academic papers more efficiently. Certain nonverbal individuals could use it to communicate in real-time with others using assistive text-to-speech software. With all of these potential people who could benefit from stenography, why hasn’t it become more widespread?

Shorthand writing was first developed more than a thousand years ago. Stenography in its current form has been used for over 100 years. Despite this long history, the skill has never become mainstream—largely due to the many barriers to entry that exist. Typically, anyone who wants to learn stenography must take professional courses through a college or trade school. On top of a steep learning curve, stenography equipment is often prohibitively expensive, running anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 or more. As a result, stenography is woefully underutilized, because few can afford the investment to get started. Thankfully, stenographer Mirabai Knight and the Open Steno Project have been making strides to change that.

From 2005 to 2007, Mirabai Knight attended the New York Career Institute to become a stenographer. The proprietary tools and upfront expenses required inspired Knight to do something to make stenography accessible to anyone who wished to learn. To that end, Knight founded the Open Steno Project, a volunteer community dedicated to bringing stenography to the masses for free. Since then, the organization has helped thousands of people learn stenography and discover new ways to use it in their career and lives.

The first major breakthrough for OSP happened in 2009, when Knight funded the development of Plover, a free and open-source steno software that allows people to use their regular keyboard as a stenography machine. Since its initial launch in 2010, Plover has grown into a feature-packed program for Windows, Mac, and Linux which works with keyboards and steno machines, integrating seamlessly into the background of an operating system. Keystroke emulation allows Plover users to use stenography not just for transcription or court reporting purposes, but within any program or website they want, like Microsoft Word or Facebook.

To help new users learn how to use the program for stenography, the Open Steno Project community has created many free resources, including the Learn Plover! online textbook and a stenographer training game on Steam called Steno Arcade. Additionally, OSP members have tackled the issue of expensive stenography hardware by offering affordable beginner options, hobbyist equipment, and steno machine alternatives like key-toppers.

Thanks to the impressive efforts of Mirabai Knight and the Open Steno Project, now anybody can learn stenography for free. Anyone considering a career in court reporting or transcription should definitely check out the resources available from OSP, especially before spending money on a degree or certification program. Even if you don’t plan on becoming a professional stenographer, the immense benefits of learning this skill make the Open Steno Project a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to improve their life and productivity with stenography.