Though instant messaging has bred a generation of young adults with high-speed typing ability, there is one person at City College who trumps all.

Debbie Chatfield works on campus as a real-time captioner for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the Disabled Students Programs & Services office.

A real-time captioner is an auxiliary aid that makes it possible for students to read the lecture as it is taking place.

“Thank goodness for Debbie,” said student Gressa Johansen. “Because she is able to type everything up court-reporting style, I can read everything that the teacher is saying.”

Johansen added that because college classrooms can be quite large it is impossible to lip read what her instructors say during lecture.

At 200 words per minute on a stenograph machine, Chatfield types not only every word of the professor’s lecture, but also questions and input from the class for the student she is aiding.

“I always enjoy my interaction with her,” said Hannah Montague, Service Provider for DSPS. “She’s very professional, but also very personable.”

Chatfield said she arrives to the student’s class early so she can set up her equipment. Her stenograph machine connects to a laptop, where the students can view the lecture as it is spoken word for word, in real-time.

“It’s fascinating to watch the speed of her short hand technique,” said DSPS Coordinator Janet Shapiro.

Chatfield went to Pacific Legal Arts College where she studied for two years to pass the state examination. Her original plan was to pursue a law degree, but she became interested in stenography after her mother was assigned jury duty, she said with a smile.

After talking with the court reporter, her mother told Chatfield that it was an area that might interest her because she had the fingers for it, as she plays both the piano and the guitar.

She did court reporting for approximately 18 years and has been at the college for some eight years as a real-time captioner for students.

This semester Chatfield is working with three students. Chatfield said her favorite class to work in is Dr. Eskandari’s political science class, as he is well versed in world issues.

Chatfield is dedicated to the students she works with.

Chatfield says she took a sign language class, and as her instructor advised, she sometimes turns the television off just to watch it as a deaf person would.

“Sometimes I imagine myself being deaf,” she said. “You’ve got to put yourself in their place.”

Another show of her dedication comes from a memory she has of working with a student at UCSB.

Chatfield came to the student’s class early to set up, and left the room for a few minutes.

“I came back and another student had spilled coffee all over my laptop.” Parts of the screen were still viewable, so she carried on as best she could.

The laptop gave out partway through the lecture. Chatfield went directly to purchase another laptop and was back in time for her next class.

The former triathlon runner even participated in a 6 mile run Sunday for cancer research fundraising with Johansen.

“I’ve come to like her a lot as a friend,” Johansen said, “She’s just a nice person.”

Chatfield says her future of stenography will be to cover guest speakers and theater plays, in which she would differentiate between characters all in real time, projecting what she types onto a large screen for the audience to read.

While instant messaging does have the word instant in the title, nothing is quite as instantaneous as Debbie Chatfield’s real-time caption.