Real-Time Captioning is captioning that is created as the event takes place. It is used for broadcast programming on television, meetings, seminars, conferences, conventions, sports, graduations and various events.

A Real-Time Captioner use a court reporting machine (stenograph machine) to input spoken words and sounds. These machines are quite complex, but they are much faster than a typewriter because they allow for the input of word syllables and phrases at a time, rather than a word at a time. The CART Captioner connects to the client’s encoder via a dial-up or IP connection. The output of the stenograph machine is fed to a computer, which produces captions that display on a screen.