Speech-to-Text Reporting (also more commonly known as captioning) is an area of realtime work providing communication support for the D/deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, as well as people whose first language is not English. Hearing people also benefit from the services of an STTR. Captioning assignments include meetings, conferences, festivals, museums, seminars, lectures, or one-to-one support. The captioner can be either onsite or remote.

The primary role of an STTR is to provide communication support, not to provide a legal, official transcript. If and when a text-format document is provided by the STTR, this is purely as an aide-memoir for the service user and has no legal standing, i.e., it cannot be quoted in the Court of Appeal, for example. A disclaimer to this effect will accompany an STTR’s transcript:

DISCLAIMER: Live captioning is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility. This document contains the real-time captions in a text format, and has not been edited, proofread, or corrected. It is not an official, legal transcript and is not certified to be true and correct. It may contain computer-generated mistranslations of palantype/stenotype code and/or electronic transmission errors, resulting in inaccurate or nonsensical word combinations.

  • Kathryn Sykes

  • Contact Info

  • 07595 530119
  • mrskathsykes@gmail.com

  • About Our Member

  • Kathryn started Palantype training at Laidler Haswell Leeds in 1986 and attained APSW Accredited Court Reporter (CAT) status in 1987.
    Since that time she has covered most areas where verbatim reporting is required, including legal proceedings in all areas of the Criminal and Civil Justice System in the UK, Disciplinary Hearings and Regulatory Health as a court reporter, and since becoming freelance in 2007 her areas of work and expertise widened to include Realtime Verbatim STT in legal proceedings, disciplinary hearings, conferences, multi-agency meetings and providing one-to-one communication support for the D/Deaf and hard of hearing.

    Whilst based in Yorkshire and the majority of her work is in the north of England, Kathryn has regularly travelled and worked in all areas of the UK. Since the start of the global
    pandemic, she has developed her technical knowledge and skills further and has been providing remote services from home in line with government guidelines.

    Kathryn is a Registered Speech to Text Reporter (STTR) with the National Register of Communication Professionals working with Deaf People (NRCPD), and a member of the Association of Verbatim Speech to Text Reporters (AVSTTR).

    Kathryn achieved distinction in her realtime examination to become a BIVR Qualified Realtime Reporter (QRR1).

    In 2012 Kathryn achieved Finalist status in the National Signature Annual Awards – Communication Professional of the Year.
  • Member
  • Court, Disciplinary Hearings/Regulatory Health, NRCPD Registered, Qualified Realtime Reporter - QRR, Realtime, Verbatim STTR/Captioning - Remote, Verbatim STTR/Captioning - On-site
  • UK