Communication Access Realtime Translation, also known as CART, is a real-time captioning service that turns spoken words into readable text as they are being spoken. It is mainly used to support deaf and hard-of-hearing people in live settings such as meetings, classrooms, hearings, conferences and public events.
Traditional CART is usually delivered by a trained captioner or speech-to-text professional. The US National Association of the Deaf describes CART as a professional service that can be delivered onsite or remotely, with text displayed on a screen, computer, mobile device or other system.
That distinction matters. CART is not a law, a platform or a company. It is a specialist accessibility service. It also does not mean translation between spoken languages in the way event teams usually talk about multilingual translation. In CART, “translation” refers to turning speech into text in real time.
Live communication moves quickly. When someone misses a sentence, struggles with a speaker’s pace or cannot clearly hear the audio, the chance to understand can disappear in seconds. CART was created to address that challenge by making spoken content visible in real time.
For deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, real-time text access can be essential. It helps people follow what is being said as the conversation happens, rather than waiting for a recording, transcript or post-event summary. In the US, ADA guidance lists real-time captioning, including CART, as one possible auxiliary aid or service that can support effective communication for people who are deaf or have hearing loss.
But CART is only one way to think about real-time access. Traditional CART is often best suited to situations where professional human captioning is specifically required. Modern events, especially large online, onsite and hybrid events, often need a more scalable approach that supports more sessions, more languages and more audience formats.
That is where AI-powered live captions and subtitles are becoming a practical alternative. They follow the same core principle as CART, giving people access to spoken content while it is happening, but they can help event teams scale real-time understanding across multilingual audiences more efficiently. For organisers, the goal is not to use one method everywhere. It is to choose the right access solution for the audience, the content and the level of support required.
What Happens When People Cannot Follow In Their Own Language?
One reason this topic becomes confusing is that CART, captions, subtitles and translation are often discussed together. They are connected, but they do different jobs.
CART usually refers to real-time, word-for-word speech-to-text access provided by a trained professional. It is often used when a participant needs live text access for accessibility reasons.
Live captions also turn speech into text in real time. Depending on the event and provider, captions may be human-generated or AI-generated. WCAG guidance on live captions explains that captions help people who are deaf or hard of hearing access real-time presentations by providing text for audio, including dialogue, speaker identification and important sound information.
Subtitles usually support people who can hear the audio but need text in another language. In multilingual events, translated subtitles can help participants follow content when they do not understand the floor language.
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Captions vs Subtitles: What Is The Difference?
Human Interpretation delivers spoken or signed language access in real time. It is especially important when nuance, emotion, intent and cultural context matter.
AI speech translation can help scale multilingual access across more sessions, languages and formats, especially when professional interpretation is not required for every moment.
The strongest event strategies do not treat these options as competitors. They use each one where it makes the most sense.
Traditional CART remains an important accessibility service, especially when a participant specifically needs professional human captioning. For some meetings, hearings, classrooms and public settings, that level of human-led accuracy is the right choice.
But many enterprise and institutional events need to scale real-time access across more languages, more sessions and more audience formats than traditional CART was originally designed to support. A global town hall, international conference, multinational broadcast, hybrid briefing or multilingual training programme may need captions for one audience, translated subtitles for another, and real-time language support across multiple rooms at the same time.
This is where Interprefy Live Captions and Subtitles offer a practical alternative. Powered by AI technology, Interprefy helps organisers provide real-time captions and translated subtitles for online, onsite and hybrid events. Instead of planning each language or session as a separate manual workflow, event teams can scale access across over 6,000 language combinations, while keeping setup and delivery more efficient.
The value is not about replacing human expertise everywhere. It is about using the right level of support for the right moment. Human captioners, interpreters and accessibility specialists remain essential when the context requires them. AI-powered captions and subtitles can support sessions where speed, scale, multilingual reach and cost efficiency are the priority.
For event leaders, this creates a more flexible way to design access. Traditional CART can support specific accessibility needs. Interprefy can help extend real-time understanding across larger multilingual audiences, giving more participants the chance to follow content in the language and format that works for them.
Choosing a real-time captioning setup is not just a technical decision. It is an access decision. The right approach depends on the audience, the format and the level of accuracy required.
Event teams should consider:
These questions help teams move beyond simply adding captions at the end of the planning process. Instead, real-time text access becomes part of the event experience from the start.
The real value of real-time access is not the captioning format itself. It is what the format makes possible: clearer understanding, faster participation and a fairer experience for people following live content in different ways.
CART helped establish this expectation by making spoken content visible as it happens. Today, event teams can build on that principle with more flexible options, including AI-powered live captions, translated subtitles, AI speech translation and professional interpretation where the context calls for human expertise.
For enterprise and institutional events, this flexibility matters. Some sessions need the precision of human-led support. Others need the speed, scale and cost efficiency of AI-powered captions and subtitles. The strongest access strategies do not treat these choices as competing solutions. They match the right level of support to the audience, the content and the moment.
Interprefy helps event teams deliver that balance across online, onsite and hybrid events. With AI-powered live captions and subtitles, organisers can extend real-time access across larger multilingual audiences, while still using human expertise where nuance, sensitivity or accessibility requirements demand it.
CART made one thing clear: access is most powerful when it happens live. Interprefy helps organisations apply that principle at scale, so more people can follow the conversation while it still matters.