voicing (also known as "reverse transcribing")

Ever voiced for a consumer??  If not, PRACTICE (role-play) with a friend outside of class!!

Some deaf people prefer not to speak orally. If the deaf person for whom you are transcribing has this preference, you will act as the conduit for information from the student to the instructor or others in the class. This is called voicing, or reverse transcribing.  Here's how it works:

1. On or before the first day in a class or meeting, ask the deaf person how he or she will prefer to handle questions and comments to the class. If you will be voicing questions and comments, it will be important that everyone knows how this process should work, including the instructor and everyone else in the group.
   • Check with your supervisor about who will be responsible for covering this important information with the instructor and class. 
2. In a voicing situation, the deaf person will type his or her question or comment to you across the TypeWell link, and you will read aloud the question or comment to the instructor or class.
   • Read the text from the deaf person and be sure you understand the question/comment before you raise your hand, so you can speak it clearly to express the writer’s meaning.  Then nod to the writer or otherwise signal that you're ready.
   • If the usual procedure is that the people in the class or meeting raise their hands to comment or ask questions, the deaf person would raise his/her hand.  When the instructor acknowledges the deaf person's raised hand, you would begin voicing.  It is the usual custom in this case for the deaf person to look toward the transcriber, to indicate where the question/comment is being voiced.
   • If the usual procedure in the class or meeting is that the participants just speak out to comment or ask questions, without raising their hands, you and the deaf person would want to follow that same procedure.  Preface your voicing with, "Question (Comment) here," while looking at the computer screen
   • It is important that the instructor and other people in the class or meeting realize that the question/comment is coming from the deaf person, not from the transcriber. To make this clear, the transcriber does not look at the instructor or class when speaking for the deaf person, or when the instructor responds. 
3. Then you begin talking, clearly and loudly enough to be easily heard. You do not look at the instructor, but instead you look at the computer screen. If you make eye contact with the instructor, he or she will probably think the question/comment is being initiated by you. To reinforce the idea that you are voicing for the deaf person, point at the computer screen as you look at it, and follow along with the text you are reading.
   • Always read the question/comment as though the deaf person were saying it. That is, use first person, the same as you do when transcribing. Say, "I don't understand what 'tectonic' means." Don't say, "He says he doesn't understand the word 'tectonic.'"
4. When you are done voicing the question/comment, look at the deaf person, not at the instructor. This will encourage the instructor to look at and respond directly to the deaf person, not to you.
5. Be ready to transcribe as soon as the instructor starts responding to the question/comment. The deaf person will be looking to the computer text to give him/her access to what the speaker is saying.