Ukrainian live captions and productivity tool for communicating with deaf & hoh
For deaf and hard of hearing people.
coming soon
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Everything you need to follow Ukrainian communicating with deaf & hoh
Four tools built for deaf and hard of hearing Ukrainian speakers.
You speak. They read.
- Your words appear on their screen word by word
- No sign language required from you
- Works at home, at work, anywhere
- Any accent, any pace
When language is also a barrier
- You speak your language, they read in theirs
- Translates in real time as you speak
- 60+ languages, no setup
- Handles mid-sentence switches
Save the conversation for them
- Record and transcribe any exchange
- They can review everything at their own pace
- Organised by speaker
- Any length, any format
Make sure nothing important was missed
- Key points extracted from any transcript
- Useful after appointments, meetings, or important conversations
- Organised into clear sections
- Works on any saved recording
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreEvery situation covered
Designed for the real moments that matter — not just quiet controlled environments.
Ukrainian family meals — in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, or a family home abroad — are warm and conversation-dense, with hearing family members speaking at full pace in regional Ukrainian. Captio AI captions what they say in real time so a deaf or hard of hearing family member follows without asking anyone to repeat.
Ukrainian workplaces run in Ukrainian for most exchanges, sometimes with Russian or English mixed in. A hearing colleague speaks naturally in whichever language fits the moment. Captio AI captions everything so a deaf or hard of hearing colleague follows desk conversations, quick questions, and team discussions without missing a word.
When your partner is deaf or hard of hearing and Ukrainian is the language you speak at home. You talk naturally — the casual Ukrainian of daily life. Captio AI puts every word on their screen as you say it so nothing is lost between you.
Daily home life in a Ukrainian household — calling from another room, talking over the evening news, quick exchanges before heading out. Captio AI covers the continuous thread of home conversation that a deaf or hard of hearing family member might otherwise have to guess at.
When a deaf or hard of hearing person meets a new hearing Ukrainian speaker — at a family gathering, a community event, or through a mutual friend. Set up Captio AI and the conversation begins naturally, without anyone needing to adjust how they speak.
Group settings — a family gathering, a community celebration, or a mixed social event — where some people are deaf or hard of hearing and some are not. Captio AI captions whoever is speaking so every person in the group is fully part of the conversation.
Most accurate and fastest models
word accuracy
independent benchmark, 2025
real-time captions
first word appears as you speak
Download for free
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You talk. They follow. No adjustment needed.
You speak naturally
No slowing down, no special phrasing, no training required. Captio AI handles everything — you just talk the way you always do.
They read as you speak
Your words appear on their screen word by word while you are still talking. Not a summary after — the full sentence, in real time.
Works wherever you both are
Living rooms, offices, restaurants, social gatherings. No venue setup, no special conditions. Captio AI works anywhere you have a conversation.
No sign language from either side
You do not need to learn anything new. Neither do they. Captio AI bridges the gap without requiring any change to how either of you communicates.
Works with how you actually speak
Fast, accented, casual. Captio AI handles real speech — not just slow, clear dictation. You do not need to perform clarity for it to work.
Private by default
Your conversations are never recorded, stored, or shared. Audio is processed in real time and discarded immediately — nothing is kept.
Why Ukrainian is hard to understand
Palatalisation contrast
- Soft and hard Ukrainian consonants look the same at the lips
- Ukrainian has a phonemic distinction between palatalised (soft) and non-palatalised (hard) consonants throughout its vocabulary — /t/ vs. /tʲ/, /n/ vs. /nʲ/, /l/ vs. /lʲ/. Palatalisation is produced with the tongue body raised toward the palate — invisible behind the teeth. A deaf lip-reader sees the same lip shape for both the hard and soft version of each consonant, yet these pairs distinguish different words in everyday Ukrainian speech.
Ukrainian central vowel /ɪ/
- Ukrainian и is a unique vowel with no visible difference from similar sounds
- Ukrainian has a central vowel /ɪ/ (и) distinct from both /i/ (і) and the Russian /ɨ/. This vowel distinction is auditory and visually extremely subtle — native speakers of Ukrainian and Russian disagree on exactly how it is positioned. A deaf lip-reader following a hearing family member has almost no visual basis for identifying this uniquely Ukrainian vowel against similar sounds.
Western vs. Eastern dialect
- Lviv and Kharkiv Ukrainian follow different phonological patterns
- Western Ukrainian (Galician, Lviv) preserves older features and was influenced by Polish, producing different phonological patterns from Eastern Ukrainian (Kharkiv, Dnipro), which carries heavier Russian influence. A deaf person who lip-reads one dialect region finds that a hearing family member from the other region uses different mouth shapes for some phonemes.
Surzhyk code-switching
- Surzhyk — the Ukrainian-Russian mixed variety — blends two phonological systems unpredictably
- The mixed variety known as Surzhyk blends Ukrainian and Russian grammatical and phonological features in ways that are fluid and unpredictable. In many Ukrainian families, especially in Eastern Ukraine, hearing family members naturally use Surzhyk. A deaf lip-reader cannot determine which phonological system is active without an auditory cue to signal the switch.
Consonant cluster density
- Ukrainian everyday words are dense with consonant clusters
- Ukrainian has dense consonant clusters in common vocabulary: 'взаємодія' (interaction), 'зустріч' (meeting), 'власний' (own), 'вступ' (introduction). In fast speech, these clusters compress into rapid articulatory sequences with very little mouth opening. The visual signal per phoneme is brief and overlapping — a deaf lip-reader sees a blur before the vowel opens.
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreHearing loss in Ukraine: an old challenge compounded by a new crisis
In the European Region as a whole, approximately 190 million people have some hearing loss or deafness — 20% of the region's population (WHO Europe). Ukraine's disability situation analysis (2025, Global Disability Fund) identifies hearing-impaired people among the groups most marginalised in Ukrainian society, facing compounded barriers in employment, education, and social participation. Ukraine's EU integration process — which requires enforcement of legislation protecting the rights of persons with disabilities — has created a legal mandate for improvement, but the gap between formal rights and daily reality remains wide.
Since February 2022, Ukraine has faced an additional layer of hearing damage that is unprecedented in modern European history: noise-induced hearing loss from sustained military conflict. Blast exposure, artillery noise, and industrial damage to civilian infrastructure have affected both combatants and civilians across many regions of Ukraine. Audiologists and public health researchers have begun documenting what will be a long-term increase in hearing impairment among the Ukrainian population — adding to the pre-existing burden of age-related and congenital hearing loss.
Ukrainian Sign Language (USL) has a user community in Ukraine, and advocacy organisations — including the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf (UTOG) — have worked for decades to secure recognition and interpreter provision. But interpreter access in daily life — at family tables, in workplaces, in ordinary conversations between hearing and deaf family members — remains structurally absent. Captio AI captions natural Ukrainian speech in real time, in whatever dialect or mixed variety the hearing family member actually speaks, so a deaf family member reads what their hearing relatives are saying.
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreWhat you hear stays with you.
Gone the moment it ends
Captio AI processes your audio in real time and discards it immediately. Nothing is recorded. Nothing is kept.
Not a product
Your conversations are not something Captio AI sells, shares, or monetizes — to anyone, for any reason.
Not used to train anything
What you say in a doctor's appointment or a job interview never ends up in a training dataset. Not ours. Not anyone else's.
Private by default
Download on theApp StoreCaptio AI supports 60+ languages
People love Captio AI
"Kyiv Ukrainian at home pace is fast and the palatalised consonants are invisible to me. Captio AI reads what my husband says correctly — soft and hard consonants distinguished. I follow our home conversations without asking him to repeat."
"Galician Ukrainian has different features from Eastern varieties. My family's speech was hard for me to lip-read. Captio AI reads their dialect accurately and I keep up with the family table instead of guessing."
"My colleagues in Kharkiv speak Surzhyk — a blend of Ukrainian and Russian. Two phonological systems at once, unpredictably. Captio AI handles the Ukrainian portions correctly and I follow the conversation much better than before."
"My family in Berlin switches between Ukrainian and German without thinking. Captio AI captions both and I follow the family gathering without sitting at the edge of the conversation."
"Kyiv Ukrainian at home pace is fast and the palatalised consonants are invisible to me. Captio AI reads what my husband says correctly — soft and hard consonants distinguished. I follow our home conversations without asking him to repeat."
"Galician Ukrainian has different features from Eastern varieties. My family's speech was hard for me to lip-read. Captio AI reads their dialect accurately and I keep up with the family table instead of guessing."
"My colleagues in Kharkiv speak Surzhyk — a blend of Ukrainian and Russian. Two phonological systems at once, unpredictably. Captio AI handles the Ukrainian portions correctly and I follow the conversation much better than before."
"My family in Berlin switches between Ukrainian and German without thinking. Captio AI captions both and I follow the family gathering without sitting at the edge of the conversation."
Download for free
Download on theApp StoreFrequently asked questions
Make every conversation work — for both sides in Ukrainian.
Captio AI is free to start
coming soon
Download for free
Download on theApp Store