Introducing Professional CART Captioning: Human-Powered Live Captions for Your Highest-Stakes Events
Not every live event has the same captioning needs. An informal departmental meeting and a graduation commencement require very different levels of accuracy. That is why Recap Innovations now offers three distinct live captioning service tiers, including a new professional CART option with human captioners delivering 99%+ accuracy in real time.
Why We Added Professional CART
Since launching our live captioning services in late 2025, we have heard a consistent request from disability services offices and event coordinators: some events require a human captioner, not AI. Commencement ceremonies with dozens of speakers, board meetings discussing sensitive policy, and conferences featuring technical terminology all benefit from a trained professional who can handle complexity that even the best speech recognition models struggle with.
We also heard from institutions that need to meet specific ADA accommodation requests from students and attendees. Some accommodation letters explicitly require CART services provided by a human captioner. Our new professional CART tier addresses that requirement directly.
Three Live Captioning Tiers
Every institution has events that span a range of complexity and formality. Our three-tier model lets you match the right level of service to each event.
Fully automated AI
Real-time AI captioning with no human intervention during the event. Captions are generated by cloud speech-to-text and delivered instantly to viewers.
- Accuracy: 95 to 98%
- Setup: Under 5 minutes, no scheduling required
- Best for: Internal meetings, informal lectures, and events where speed is more important than perfection
- Cost: Lowest cost per hour
This tier is ideal for high-volume, lower-stakes events. There is no scheduling lead time, so you can start captioning immediately whenever the need arises.
AI with human editing
Real-time AI captioning with a live human moderator who corrects errors as captions are generated. The moderator watches the AI output and fixes the most critical mistakes before they reach viewers. The moderator can be from your institution's staff or from our team (paid per hour).
- Accuracy: 97 to 99%
- Setup: 24 to 48 hours advance notice when requesting from our team
- Best for: Formal lectures, public meetings, and events with accommodation requirements
- Cost: Best balance of accuracy and affordability for most educational use cases
The live moderator catches and corrects errors that matter most, such as proper nouns, technical terms, and speaker attributions. This tier delivers strong accuracy without the higher cost of a dedicated human captioner.
Professional CART
Communication Access Realtime Translation by a professional captioner. A trained human captioner listens to the event audio and creates captions in real time. The captioner types the captions directly into our platform, publishing them to all viewers with each line. They can also correct published captions after the fact if they catch a mistake.
- Accuracy: 99%+
- Setup: Schedule in advance for captioner availability
- Best for: High-stakes events, commencement ceremonies, board meetings, conferences, and events requiring the highest ADA compliance accuracy
- Cost: Highest cost per hour, reflecting the skill and training of professional captioners
This tier is required for events where content complexity (technical terminology, multiple speakers, overlapping dialogue, multiple conference rooms) exceeds what AI or current AV technology can handle reliably.
How Professional CART Works on Our Platform
We built the professional CART workflow directly into the same live stream manager that powers our AI and hybrid tiers. Here is what happens during a CART-captioned event.
The captioner's workflow
The human captioner joins the live stream session in our platform and begins captioning directly. They can type captions and publish them to all connected viewers by pressing enter or using a keyboard shortcut. After a caption line is published, the captioner can still go back and correct it if they notice an error. This means viewers see the initial caption immediately, and any corrections appear within seconds.
Voice dictation support
For captioners who prefer a re-speaking workflow, our platform also supports microphone voice dictation. The captioner listens to the event audio through a headset, then re-speaks the content into their microphone. Our speech recognition converts their clear, controlled dictation into text. The captioner can then review, edit, and publish the resulting captions. This approach is common in professional CART settings where the captioner's controlled re-speaking produces higher accuracy than raw event audio alone.
Automatic AI fallback
If the human captioner needs to step away or encounters a technical issue, the system can automatically fall back to AI captioning with or without human moderation. This ensures there is never a gap in caption delivery during a live event. When the captioner returns, they resume control seamlessly.
Post-event transcript
Every CART session produces a complete, time-stamped, searchable transcript, with automated AI meeting notes and summary recaps. Because the captions were created by a professional, the resulting transcript is significantly more accurate than AI-generated alternatives. Institutions can use these transcripts for official records, student review materials, or compliance documentation.
Choosing the Right Tier for Your Event
The table below summarizes when to use each tier.
| Event type | Recommended tier | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Internal team meeting | Fully automated AI | Low stakes, no lead time needed |
| Weekly lecture series | AI with human editing | Good accuracy at manageable cost |
| Public town hall or board meeting | AI with human editing or professional CART | Depends on accommodation requirements and audience |
| Commencement ceremony | Professional CART | Multiple speakers, proper nouns, highest accuracy needed |
| Conference with technical content | Professional CART | Specialized terminology, multiple sessions |
| Emergency or last-minute event | Fully automated AI | Instant availability with no scheduling |
For many institutions, the AI with human editing tier covers the majority of events, with professional CART reserved for the most important occasions. The fully automated tier fills the gap for spontaneous or low-stakes needs.
ADA Compliance and WCAG 2.1
All three tiers satisfy WCAG 2.1 Level AA Success Criterion 1.2.4, which requires captions for all live audio content in synchronized media. The professional CART tier goes further by meeting the accuracy expectations that disability services offices and legal teams typically require for formal ADA accommodation requests.
With the April 2026 ADA Title II compliance deadline approaching, institutions need a live captioning solution that can flex across different event types. A single tier cannot serve every need. Our three-tier model gives you the flexibility to be compliant across your entire event calendar without overspending on events that do not require premium captioning.
Platform Integrations
Professional CART captions, like all our live captioning tiers, are delivered through the same infrastructure. Captions can be:
- Displayed on any device via a shareable web link or QR code
- Sent directly into Zoom meetings via our native Zoom integration
- Delivered to YouTube Live streams
- Embedded in Kaltura and Panopto video players
- Viewed with customizable font, size, color, and contrast settings
The viewer experience is the same regardless of which captioning tier produces the captions.
Getting Started
To try professional CART captioning or any of our live captioning tiers:
- Schedule a demo to see all three tiers in action
- Contact your account manager if you already use Recap Innovations for recorded content accessibility
- Email sales@recap-innovations.com with questions about pricing, scheduling, or volume agreements
We recommend booking your first professional CART session at least one week in advance so we can match you with a remote captioner who has experience in your subject area. For AI and hybrid tiers, you can get started within minutes.
About Recap Innovations
Recap Innovations provides comprehensive video accessibility solutions for educational institutions and enterprises. Our platform combines AI-powered automation with professional-grade quality for captions, transcripts, audio descriptions, translations, voiceovers, and live captioning. With native integrations across major video platforms, cloud storage providers, conferencing tools, and Learning Management Systems, we help organizations meet accessibility requirements while serving diverse global audiences.
Learn more about our real-time closed captioning services, live captioning demo, explore our platform features, or contact our team to discuss your live captioning needs.