Romanian live captions and productivity tool for doctor appointments

Romania faces a structural gap in addressing hearing loss from birth. A study published in PMC found that the country lacks a coherent national strategy for newborn hearing screening — most Romanian maternity hospitals do not perform routine hearing tests for newborns, meaning the majority of congenital sensorineural hearing loss cases are diagnosed after age three. By that point, critical language-development windows have already closed, compounding the communicative and educational disadvantages that children carry into adulthood. The result is a population of hearing-impaired Romanians who receive both a later diagnosis and less early intervention than counterparts in Western Europe.

The socioeconomic burden compounds the clinical gap. Official Romanian data counted 898,349 certified disabled persons in June 2023 — approximately one in twenty residents. Among this population, 38.2% faced poverty or social exclusion risk in 2023, the third-largest disability poverty gap in the EU, against an EU average significantly lower. Material deprivation affected 28.4% of disabled Romanians, more than double the EU average. Only 17% of disabled Romanians aged 20–64 were in paid work — the lowest share in the Union — reflecting the structural barriers that limit economic participation for people with sensory and other disabilities.

In the healthcare system itself, deaf and hard of hearing Romanians navigate appointments without a guaranteed right to an interpreter and in a context where the intersection of low income and hearing loss is particularly acute. A patient who cannot afford private healthcare, does not receive an interpreter, and lacks digital access is triply disadvantaged at the moment that matters most — receiving a diagnosis and understanding how to act on it. Captio AI captions Romanian in real time at any cabinet medical or spital, giving the patient direct access to what the doctor says in any clinical setting across Romania.