We are STENO. This is why we are still here.
The February 2021 Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump was a significant example of the critical work done by America’s stenographers. Ana Fatima Costa broadens our awareness about her profession whose members have been providing immediate transcription of the spoken word via cutting-edge CAT technology known as “realtime” (from shorthand to English) since the 1960s. Costa describes how her colleagues work diligently as guardians of the record in a challenging, stressful job capturing the spoken word in high-profile events, providing verbatim, accurate, official transcripts for Congressional hearings, in deposition rooms, at trials, arbitrations, and for captioning services used by media organizations.