Denise Agard

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Name: Denise Agard

Where do you live?
Etobicoke

Profession: Closed captioner

Please explain what you do in your job:
I provide captioning services for the hearing impaired for television stations throughout Canada and the United States. I also provide one-on-one captioning services to hearing impaired students and business professionals.

Current job:
I am an independent contractor working for companies that contract work from broadcasters in Canada and the United States. I also provide one-on-one captioning services to hearing impaired students and business professionals.

List of accomplishments:
I have worked in the medical and legal fields as an assistant and as a law clerk. I have also worked as a court reporter in provincial court and the Superior Court of Justice.

How do you measure success in your profession?
For closed captioning, success is usually measured by how clean your captions come out. There are also tests that can be taken at the provincial and national levels to enable reporters to achieve different designations.

How did you get your start in your chosen career?
I discovered this career by a fluke. I went for a job interview in early spring and the lady interviewing me told me about court reporting. The next day I started to investigate and by the fall I was in school.

When did you decide this is what you want to do for a living and what was the 'moment'?
I was in my mid-20s when I discovered court reporting. I decided that I wanted to pursue reporting from talking to individuals involved in the career and by my own investigation.

What did you have to do in order to get involved with this profession?
I attended George Brown College in Toronto. At the time George Brown carried a course, but it has since stopped offering one. There are now only two places in Canada that offer courses: Canadian Centre For Verbatim Studies in Toronto and Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Alberta.

Pros and cons of this job:
Pros: There are so many directions one can take being a court reporter: legal work, captioning, cart and Senate work, and within those there are further breakdowns. If you enjoy travelling there are many reporters who have travelled to many places providing reporting. Reporters are well paid.

Cons: The work can be demanding at times, but the pros, in my opinion, outweigh the cons.

Skills required for this job:
To be a reporter you must take a specialized technical course. While in the course you learn court reporting theory, and the focus is on writing with speed and accuracy. Excellent grammatical English is also a requirement. There are also courses in law and medical terminology. Graduating speeds are in excess of 225 words per minute.

What can youth expect if they want to pursue this job?
The course is demanding but if you really focus on mastering theory and practicing you will be able to get through a program and graduate.

Salary range:
$50,000 to $150,000

Advice to youth who are thinking about pursuing this field:
The future of court reporting is growing and we are applying our skills in new areas. If you are thinking about pursing this career, contact one of the schools I mentioned, or better yet, speak to a working reporter.

Anything else you would like to say?
I have been a working court reporter in the field for more than 15 years and I have travelled from Nunavut to the Caribbean. I have met and worked with some amazing people. To this day I still continue learning. If you are looking for a challenging career that offers travel, a multitude of career options and great pay, this career is for you.