Serbian live captions and productivity tool for doctor appointments

Serbia has one of the highest rates of disability poverty in the Western Balkans. Official figures from Serbia's Republican Institute for Statistics indicate that people with disabilities have an employment rate of around 20% — one in five — against a general population rate that is significantly higher. For deaf and hard of hearing Serbs, navigating the healthcare system means navigating it in a context where communication support infrastructure is limited, interpreter provision is informal and inconsistently available, and the legal framework for disability rights — though formally aligned with the UN CRPD since Serbia's ratification in 2009 — has not consistently produced accessible clinical settings at the point of care.

The situation of the deaf community in Serbia reflects a broader regional pattern: a small, underfunded Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, limited numbers of sign language interpreters active in clinical and public settings, and a healthcare system where the practical experience of a deaf patient is shaped more by individual goodwill of medical staff than by guaranteed structural support. Serbian Sign Language is recognised in education and social policy contexts, but interpreter availability at healthcare appointments — particularly outside Belgrade — is inconsistent.

The toll of this gap falls most heavily on older deaf Serbs and those in rural or peri-urban areas where the dom zdravlja is the primary and often only healthcare access point. In an environment where medical staff are already stretched, a deaf patient who arrives without an interpreter and without assistive technology must rely on note-passing or family mediation — both of which degrade the completeness and accuracy of clinical communication. Captio AI captions Serbian in real time at any dom zdravlja or klinički centar, so every patient receives their doctor's words directly.