◆Yasuki KUBOSAKI, Benny SHIEH, Yiwen CHIANG 2025/10/25-26 "A Comparison of CART Captioning Systems for Hearing-impaired Students in Higher Education in Japan and Taiwan",　障害学国際セミナー2025,　於：京都（日本）
◇障害学国際セミナー2025 ◇障害学国際セミナー
◇障害学

Yasuki KUBOSAKI, Benny SHIEH, Yiwen CHIANG 2025/10/25-26 "A Comparison of CART Captioning Systems for Hearing-impaired Students in Higher Education in Japan and Taiwan",　障害学国際セミナー2025,　於：京都（日本）

# Background

Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), or real-time captioning, provides spoken information as visual text in daily life, education, and academic settings. It is an essential tool for the social participation of people with hearing impairments. In Japan, CART is provided under the Comprehensive Support Law for Persons with Disabilities as a community service (“Note-taking Service”). However, it is limited to daily life (e.g., medical visits, ceremonies, community meetings) and not available in education. Therefore, universities must arrange CART individually through contracts or train student supporters. This creates a systemic gap: municipal CART providers and higher education supporters share similar skills but rarely collaborate, preventing cross-utilization.

# Objective

This study compares CART systems in Japan and Taiwan, clarifies challenges in the Japanese framework, and explores directions for improvement and possibilities for international collaboration.

# Comparison of Systems between Japan and Taiwan

- Start year JP: 1985 (community); ~2000 (universities) TW: 2001 (universities); 2014(Taipei City) - Name JP: Summarized Writing (hand/PC:要約筆記) Live captioning/character interpretation (文字通訳) TW: Communication Access Realtime Translation (同步聽打服務) - Legal basis JP: Comprehensive Support Act for Persons with Disabilities障害者総合支援法 TW: The Special Education Act (特殊教育法)Job Redesign Service Implementation Plan (身心障礙者職務再設計服務實施計畫), People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act (身心障礙者權益保障法) - Responsible ministry JP: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare; Ministry of Education (for higher education) TW: Ministry of Health and Welfare (for social policy) ; Ministry of Education (for education policy); Foreign and Disabled Labor Office (for labor policy) - Use in education JP: Limited (individual university arrangements) TW: Limited (Arrange services according to needs) - Captioner qualification JP: National/local governments’ certification; finishing each university’s training TW: NGOs Undertaking the Project /university training (no national license) - Training duration JP: ~80 hours (community); 3–10 hours (universities), optional exam TW: ~10 hours academic subjects and ~10 hours practical subjects, must pass an exam - Training content JP: Disability awareness, captioning skills, teamwork, ethics, practicum TW: Disability awareness, ethics, case studies, user experience - Networks JP: National CART research groups; PEPNet-Japan TW: Hearing Impaired NGOs such as Sound Home, Chinese Association of the Deaf (聲暉, 聽障人協會) …etc. - ICT use JP: LAN based software; remote captioning spreading after COVID19 TW: Cloud tools (e.g., Google Docs); remote captioning start at COVID19 - AI speech recognition JP: Piloted, but with issues (homophones, dialects) TW: Students use it spontaneously (via smartphone), and the proportion of users is gradually increasing. - Funding JP: National/local budgets; university subsidies, no personal payments TW: Government budgets, foundation, private donations, no personal payments

# Distinctive Features

- Japan: Developed from handwriting-based systems; dedicated CART applications; specialized higher education support networks (e.g., PEPNet-Japan). - Taiwan: Developed nearly 20 years after sign language interpreting, they are now jointly advocated services. These services are provided through collaboration between universities' special education resource centers and NGOs, without a dedicated independent unit. CART service in education has progressed more slowly than in social welfare, so most regulations are based on or adapted from those in the social welfare sector.

# Common challenges:

Limited budgets, insufficient staff, and inappropriate use of AI or speech recognition create barriers to access.

# Conclusion

Both Japan and Taiwan share similar needs for text-based communication and social participation of people with hearing impairments. Japan benefits from specialized higher education networks, but the separation between community and university systems forces retraining across fields. Bridging this divide—for example, by sharing curricula—would strengthen support. In Taiwan, establishing a higher-education-focused CART network, similar to Japan’s PEPNet-Japan (modeled on the U.S. PEPNet), could provide valuable support in the future. Though each side developed its own CART systems and training curriculum, there are certain similarities on both sides. Therefore, sharing and exchanging information and their experiences can bring good impacts to both sides by learning advanced points from each other.

# References

- Asami Oshimoto (2024). A historical study of note-taking services and the hard-of-hearing movement. Core Ethics, 20, pp.13–23. - 押元麻美、2024年、「要約筆記事業と難聴者運動の歴史的検討―パソコン要約筆記をめぐる意見の相違を手がかりとして―」、コア・エシックス20, pp. 13-23 - Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (2011). “Training curriculum for note-taking providers”. - 厚生労働省、2011年3月30日「障企自発０３３０第１号 要約筆記者の養成カリキュラム等について」 - Sound Home (2019). “CART training and evaluation guidelines”. - 中華民國聲暉聯合會、2019年「中華民國聲暉聯合會同步聽打員培訓課程結訓考核作業原則」 - Sound Home (2019). “Equal Rights Typewriter 2.0 CART Training Handbook”. - 中華民國聲暉聯合會編、2019年、『平權打字機2.0 同步聽打學科培訓教材 參考手冊』 - PEPNet-Japan Secretariat (2025). The Report on the 20th Symposium on Support for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in Higher Education. - 日本聴覚障害学生高等教育支援ネットワーク事務局編、2025年3月1日、「第20回日本聴覚障害学生高等教育支援シンポジウム報告書」