Azerbaijani live captions and productivity tool for doctor appointments

Approximately 31,000 deaf people live in Azerbaijan, with the broader hearing-impaired population significantly larger when moderate and age-related hearing loss is included. Azerbaijani Sign Language (AzSL) is not officially recognised by the Azerbaijani state, leaving the deaf community without formal legal protection for their primary language. In international deaf conferences and events, Russian Sign Language is used as a substitute — a reflection of the Soviet legacy that still shapes the deaf experience in the country. Only two Republican Special Boarding Schools serve the entire deaf community nationally.

The absence of sign language recognition has downstream consequences for healthcare access. Without a legal framework mandating interpreter provision, deaf Azerbaijanis navigating the healthcare system rely on informal support — family members who translate, or doctors who write notes on paper when communication breaks down. In rural polyclinics outside Baku, where healthcare resources are already stretched, there is no structured mechanism for providing communication access to deaf patients. The Soviet-era medical system left a dual inheritance: capable specialised institutions in major cities and underequipped district facilities in the regions.

For deaf and hard of hearing Azerbaijanis, the gap between legal invisibility and daily clinical reality is felt most acutely at the appointment itself. A doctor pressed for time cannot slow down for informal note-passing. Medical decisions — dosage, contraindications, follow-up appointments — require full, accurate comprehension, not a simplified summary filtered through a relative. Captio AI captions Azerbaijani and Russian in real time at a Baku polyclinic or regional health centre, so the patient receives the doctor's words directly and in full.