Mayor Bill de Blasio and Commissioner Victor Calise Present Company With the 2021 Sapolin Public Accommodations Award
(New York City, NY) — TotalCaption is the proud recipient of the 2021 Sapolin Accessibility Award in the category of Public Accommodations, presented by the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD). TotalCaption Founder, Lauren Schechter, was honored by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and received the award presented by Deputy Mayor Phillip Thompson and Commissioner Victor Calise of MOPD.
MOPD celebrates the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) each year by presenting the Sapolin Accessibility Awards. This event is named after Matthew Sapolin, a former Commissioner of MOPD and a staunch advocate and leader in the disability community. MOPD identifies organizations and individuals who demonstrate a commitment to improving the lives of individuals with disabilities in all aspects of life. Awards are presented in the areas of Employment, Public Accommodations, Public Services, Communication and Technology, and Advocacy.
“Being named a Sapolin Public Accommodations Award winner speaks to our ongoing commitment to ensuring everyone has access to accurate captioning and interpretation of events, seminars, meetings, classes, educational forums, etc.,” explains Schechter. “We applaud Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Calise for their unwavering support of companies such as TotalCaption who provide important services to individuals with hearing loss and other disabilities.”
“And she [Schechter] is the most, we could say the most sought‑after Captioner in all of New York City. That everything we do has to have her in there. So Lauren is amazing,” said Commissioner Calise in his awards presentation speech.
As America’s oldest captioning family, TotalCaption provides customized captioning services worldwide to Fortune 500 companies, associations, public officials, and various other types of businesses and organizations that need onsite or remote communication access, realtime translation, American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, transcription, and multi-language simultaneous captioning.
One of the contributing factors to TotalCaption receiving the award was their ability to accommodate the growing trend of online meetings at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When the pandemic hit, TotalCaption pivoted to accommodate live, realtime captioning for numerous online meeting platforms including Zoom, WebEx, YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Livestream, and more,” says Schechter. “Our innovation team stays on top of the latest trends and state-of-the-art technologies to ensure we continue to meet the evolving and growing needs of our valued clients. And, even as artificial intelligence (AI) advances, we believe wholeheartedly that there will never be a suitable substitute for human interaction, at least when it comes to captioning, interpretation, and translation.”
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About TotalCaption
TotalCaption, a certified Woman-Owned Business Enterprise, is one of the largest providers of onsite and remote CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) captioning in the United States, and one of only a handful of worldwide onsite providers. TotalCaption is a second-generation captioning business whose roots span more than three decades, and is considered the pioneer of CART services. The company continues to evolve as technology advances. Their reputation for providing innovative technology and the highest quality of CART is second to none. TotalCaption provides CART in numerous languages (including American Sign Language) and transcription services for associations, Fortune 500 companies, the United Nations, Ivy League universities, government, medical institutions, and even United States Presidents. For more information, visit www.totalcaption.com.
