“Ephphatha!” : Captioning the Mass
by Donna Gilbertson
In this Year of Faith, how shall we hear the Mass? How can sound
barriers turn into “Ephpatha!”[1] There are 48 million Americans with a hearing
loss[2].
Of those, about 12 million are Catholic, since Catholics make up 24 percent of
the US population[3].
20 percent of Americans, 12 years or
older, have a significant hearing loss[4],
enough to impact communication. Are they in your church?
Those with hearing loss are a diverse group in their communication
needs[5]. Surprisingly, 90 percent of those with hearing
loss do not know sign language. Sign Language
Masses, while wonderful, only reach a small segment. Masses with Assistive Listening Devices
require enough residual hearing to be able to use them. As the demographics suggests, there are many with
hearing loss who need additional visual support in order to process the audio,
or are entirely dependent on the visual. Speech reading is reading the body, facial,
and lips of the speaker, often making use of residual sound patterns. For some who do speech-read, it is easier
one-on-one, or small groups that allows for clarifications, but often breaks
down in large groups due to complex and variable group dynamics. Captioning increases
understanding for many in large groups over oral interpreters who mouth the
words of the speaker, competing with the speaker’s body language, sound patterns,
lag time and working memory.
Skilled CART (Computer Assisted Real Time) writers provide speech-to-text
real time captioning with little lag time with an accuracy rate of 99%. It allows you to see several sentences in a
viewer’s screen. You can scan both the speaker and the captions because the
average reading rate is much higher then the average speaking rate. The verbatim of captioning allows audio
tracking for many.
Technology today is available for Remote (CART) Captioning,
connecting to the internet and web portal of the captionist, to allow access to
captioning using iPads, smart phones, laptops, or a large screen.
Captioning has increased over the years in the secular
world. Colleges, schools, conferences
and workshops frequently offer Real Time Captioning. Movie theatres, TV shows, Netflix,
and YouTube videos often have captions. Email, SMS texting, social networks,
speech to text software, Skype with captions, and other technology have opened
doors. Captioning is also going beyond
the secular world. Many Catholic DVDs and TV shows, including EWTN Mass are
available in captioning, making God’s word accessible.
Captioning is a “Universal Design” benefiting seniors, those
speaking English as a second language, people with learning disabilities,
Auditory Processing disorder, or attention deficit. Captioning helps hearing people with soft-spoken
speakers, accents and babies crying.
Can you use the Laptop with manual typist, or the
Missellette at Mass? Typists vary from
50-120 wpm. A captionist types 200-300 wpm. A speaker has an average rate of 120
to 160 wpm, with a high end of 200+ wpm. This affects quality, limited to
paraphrasing, and key concepts instead of an authentic verbatim. Not everything
is in the Missellette (Homily, Intercessory prayers, Announcements).
In a Catholic Mass, captioning means participating with
laity responses during common prayers, profession of faith, and following along
with everyone else. ‘Hearing’ the homily in the priest’s own words who engages
the community allows one to enter more deeply compared to getting the homily by
a lay person taking notes. They can connect to the faith community being on the
‘same page’, laugh when everyone else is laughing, pray alongside with
everyone, build one another up. Having someone point to the words ‘hear our
prayers’ and not knowing what prayers the community is engaged in is
disconnecting. You can’t claim someone else’s Mass experience being an observer.
Mass is not meant to be a spectator experience. Spectators are disconnected. Catholics
are called to be active participants, sharing and professing their faith
together. Participants are connected that gives a spiritual depth to Mass.
Many people with hearing loss have a ‘why bother?’ attitude when
it comes to going to church. Some sources report that only 4 - 10 percent of those
with hearing loss attend church. It is a
large unreached group. I once heard someone with a hearing loss, when talking
about church, say, “when you go there to participate and you are unable to do
so, it is worse than not going there at all”. Lack of access commonly invokes feelings of isolation
and alienation. It separates you from the faith community. Helen Keller once wrote, “Blindness
separates us from things, but deafness separates us from people.”
Having access to God’s word at Mass with Captioning will be
a breakthrough in communication access for many in the life of the church.
“…How
beautiful are the feet of those who bring (the) good news!” -Romans 10:12-15
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