Locating a Service

Our company, Catalina Solutions LLC, makes the TypeWell product and teaches transcribers their craft. We do not directly provide transcribing services. If you are looking for someone already trained to provide transcribing services, you may be interested in working with an outside service: either an independent contractor, or a speech-to-text agency.

This page lists some agencies that provide TypeWell services. These agencies are separate companies from Catalina Solutions. So, although we believe them to all provide quality TypeWell services, we do not guarantee it. We provide this list to give you a starting point to look for the service you need. Please be sure to check them out for yourself. See the example questions in the section below.

Company	Locations served	Settings	Services provided	Contact
Alternative Communication Services	Company based in Illinois and provides remote	pre-college, college, community, business	TypeWell, CART, Sign Language Interpreting, Captioning	Philip A. Hyssong 800-335-0911
Intellitext LLC	Reno, Sparks, Carson City, and Las Vegas, Nevada	pre-college, college, government, medical, community, places of worship, business	TypeWell	Randi Hecht 800-880-4773 775-338-4436
Quality Transcription Specialists	Greater Metro Kansas City area, or any by remote	pre-college, college, government, community, business	TypeWell, Sign Language Interpreting, Video Remote Interpreting, Consulting, Service Coordination, Post-Production Transcripts	Cal Hutson 816-805-8945
Strada Communications	United States and Canada. Services available onsite or remote	pre-college, college, government, community, medical, business	TypeWell, Sign Language Interpreting, Captioning (CART & captioned media), ALDs, Assistive Technology, Alternate Format Texts, Recruiting, Consulting, Service Coordination	Chanel Carlascio 866-758-0194
Vital Signs	Maryland, Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, and parts of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, or any by remote	pre-college, college, government, medical, community, places of worship, business	TypeWell, CART, Sign Language Interpreting, Readers for the Blind & low vision	Keri Murphy or Carrie Scoone 443-629-7841
Hands Up Communications	Central and Eastern Iowa, Western Illinois, South Eastern Wisconsin	pre-college, college, medical, community, places of worship, business	TypeWell, Sign Language Interpreting, Video Remote Interpreting, Consulting, Service Coordination	Breanna Reed 319-213-9920
All HANDS IN MOTION Professional Sign Language Interpreters, LLC	New York City metropolitan area, Westchester	pre-college, college, business, government, community, medical, legal, mental health, places of worship	TypeWell, Sign Language Interpreting, Multilingual Interpreting, Tactile Interpreting, Captioned Media, Oral Transliteration, Deaf Culture In-services, Consulting, Referrals	Janice B. Rimler 718-997-0472
Communication Exchange	Northwest Ohio, Southeastern Michigan, or any by remote	pre-college, college, government, medical, community, places of worship, business	TypeWell, Sign Language Interpreting, Captioning	Nancy Hazlett
Visual Communication Services	Greater Gulf Coast Region and Houston in Texas, or any by remote	pre-college, college, community	TypeWell, CART, Sign Language Interpreting, Video Remote Interpreting	Erma Webb
Sign Language Interpreting Services	Bryan/College Station area of Texas, or any by remote	college, community, business	TypeWell, Sign Language Interpreting	Sherri Roberts 979-696-5538
Island Access Transcribing Services	Vancouver Island, the lower Mainland, the Sunshine Coast, and the Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada. Digital transcription nationwide.	pre-college, college, government, medical, community, places of worship, business	TypeWell, Medical Transcription, Conventional Transcription (video, academic and business)	Dana Wright or Louise Carlow 250-634-1642 250-857-6067

Questions to Ask

You may want to ask the agency questions like these:

Can the agency provide references?
Set-up
- Does the agency provide the equipment for remote consumers? (e.g., laptops, software, and microphones.)
- How does the agency provide remote technical support?
- Does the agency provide training for local coordinators and/or deaf consumers using remote services?
Costs
- Is there a minimum charge, such as a 2 hour minimum for a 1-hour class?
- Is teaming required even for 1-hour classes? (See the "teaming" section below)
- What are the costs of a team for long classes/difficult classes? (See the "teaming" section below)
- Is there a surcharge for classes over a certain length?
- Are costs higher for math/science or highly technical classes?
- What is the cancellation policy, both for individual classes and for dropping service completely on a mid-term drop-out? No charge with 24 hour notice is reasonable.
Transcriber -- The particular transcriber's skill level is a key factor in the quality of the service.
- How experienced is the particular transcriber you would get?
- Do you have a choice of transcribers?
- Is the transcriber reasonably familiar with specialized class vocabulary?
- Will you guarantee experienced transcribers for math/science or highly technical classes?
- Do the agency's remote transcribers have at least one semester of in-classroom experience?
- Are two transcribers (i.e., a team) provided for long or difficult classes?
Getting ready
- What is the protocol for editing and delivering transcripts?
- What prep materials should you have for the agency transcribers, such as the class syllabus, handouts, or web pages?

Teaming

The question of "teaming" should be addressed when considering which agency to use. Teaming is the process of using two transcribers at the same time to provide services, especially in long or difficult classes. You can read more about the kinds of classes that require teaming, and how teaming works, here.

Be aware that some agencies will provide only one transcriber no matter how long or how difficult a class is. Such a "one transcriber" practice is usually a bad idea, because the quality of services to the deaf consumer would likely suffer due to transcriber mental and physical fatigue. On the other hand, some agencies prefer to use a teamed solution for all assignments, even for 1-hour moderate classes that could be handled by one qualified transcriber. Teaming such classes is often not necessary, because a single qualified transcriber can usually handle such a class. We recommend that you choose agencies that follow the teaming guidelines on our Scheduling and Teaming pages.