Captio AI
🦻 Accessibility + 💻 Productivity App

Urdu live captions and productivity tool for doctor appointments

For deaf and hard of hearing people.

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Captio AI app showing live captions

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Use Cases

Every situation covered

Designed for the real moments that matter — not just quiet controlled environments.

🩺GP and primary care visits

Government hospital OPD visits across Pakistan where the doctor speaks fast Urdu and switches to English for diagnoses and drug names. Captio AI captions every switch in real time.

🔬Specialist consultations

Private specialist clinics in Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad where cardiologists deliver dense clinical vocabulary in Urdu and English. Captio AI captions every word as the specialist speaks.

💊Pharmacy conversations

Pharmacy and دوا خانہ counter conversations where the chemist explains the prescription in Urdu. Captio AI captions the dosage instructions so nothing is missed.

🦷Dental appointments

Dental visits where the dentist explains the treatment in Urdu and names the procedure in English. Captio AI follows both and captures the full treatment plan.

🧠Mental health sessions

Mental health consultations in Pakistani cities where accurate understanding of the session has real clinical consequences. Captio AI captions the clinician in real time.

🚑Emergency and urgent care

Emergency room visits at government hospitals in Pakistan where triage staff speak quickly. Captio AI captions the key clinical instructions when they matter most.

Performance

Most accurate and fastest models

Urdu
93.7%

word accuracy

independent benchmark, 2025

< 200ms
you speak
captions

real-time captions

first word appears as you speak

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Captio AI in everyday use
Why Captio AI

Built for the conversations where every word matters

Captions as the doctor speaks

Words appear on screen while the doctor is still talking. You read the diagnosis, drug name, or follow-up instruction at the same moment it is said — not after they have moved on.

Medical terminology handled accurately

Drug names, procedure names, clinical terms. Captio AI handles the vocabulary of a real consultation — not just everyday speech.

Review the appointment after

Record the consultation and upload it to Audio Transcription. Get a full written record of everything said — instructions, dosages, referrals — to review at home and share with a carer if needed.

Works in any clinical setting

Consultation rooms, hospital wards, A&E, dental chairs, pharmacy counters. Place the phone near the speaker and Captio AI captions whoever is talking.

Any language

For foreign-language doctors, specialists abroad, or appointments through an interpreter. Live Translator captions and translates in real time so you follow your diagnosis in the language you understand best.

100% private

Medical conversations are among the most sensitive there are. Captio AI processes audio in real time and discards it immediately. Nothing is recorded, stored, or shared.

Urdu

Why Urdu is hard to understand

Urdu–English code-switch at diagnosis

  • Pakistani doctors explain in Urdu and deliver the diagnosis, drug name, and test in English
  • Medical consultations in Pakistan almost universally involve a code-switch at the most clinical moment. A doctor takes the history in Urdu, then delivers the diagnosis and prescription in English: 'آپ کو hypertension ہے، Amlodipine شروع کریں، اور ECG کروائیں.' A deaf patient tracking Urdu loses the thread exactly when the clinical information is most specific — the diagnosis, the drug, and the investigation are all in the code the patient was not tracking.

Aspiration pairs in Urdu medical vocabulary

  • Urdu's four-way consonant contrast is nearly invisible on the lips
  • Urdu has four contrasting consonant series: voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated, voiced unaspirated, and voiced aspirated — producing pairs like پ/پھ, ک/کھ, ت/تھ, ب/بھ. These are primarily acoustic distinctions — aspiration produces no visible change in lip position. Medical vocabulary built on these contrasts is hard to distinguish visually in fast clinical delivery, and a deaf patient relying on lip-reading cannot recover the phonemic distinction.

Urdu–Hindi register boundary

  • Urdu and Hindi share phonology but diverge in medical vocabulary — creating gaps across borders
  • Urdu and Hindi are mutually intelligible in everyday speech but diverge in formal vocabulary: Urdu medical terms draw from Arabic and Persian, while Hindi medical terms draw from Sanskrit. A deaf Urdu-speaking patient attending a clinic in India — or in the UK diaspora — will encounter the same phonology but different lexical choices in clinical speech. The shared surface form masks the vocabulary gap.

Fast Pakistani clinical delivery

  • Pakistan's public hospitals operate under very large patient loads and very short consultations
  • Government hospitals in Pakistan — including major teaching hospitals in Lahore, Karachi, and Peshawar — see enormous numbers of outpatients per day. Consultations are brief. The doctor speaks quickly, writes the prescription, and the next patient is at the door. A deaf patient attending alone cannot ask for repetition without disrupting the flow of a service under constant pressure.

Nastaliq script and on-screen reading

  • Urdu's right-to-left Nastaliq script requires reading adjustment alongside audio tracking
  • Urdu is written in Nastaliq script, displayed right to left. A deaf patient reading real-time Urdu captions must process right-to-left text while following the visual context of the consultation. Patients more familiar with Roman Urdu in digital contexts may find Nastaliq captions an additional adjustment.

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
The Challenge

14.5 million Pakistanis with hearing loss. No neonatal screening. No interpreter provision in hospitals.

Pakistan has approximately 14.5 million people with hearing loss, with about 4.8% of the total population experiencing hearing problems, according to data cited by the National Health Services Pakistan. The prevalence of hearing loss in Pakistan is significantly elevated compared to global averages, driven in substantial part by a high rate of hereditary hearing loss: studies published in PMC have found that the incidence of genetic hearing loss in Pakistan is among the highest in the world, linked in part to the rate of consanguineous marriages. WHO EMRO research (2023) found that hearing impairment in Pakistan is frequently identified late in childhood because of the absence of a national neonatal hearing screening programme — and that up to 26% of mild hearing loss cases may be missed even where screening is available.

Pakistan has no mandated neonatal hearing screening programme and no national standard for sign language interpreter provision in healthcare settings. Pakistani Sign Language (PSL) has no formal legal recognition, and there are no requirements for public hospitals to offer sign language access. A deaf patient attending a government hospital in Lahore or Karachi without a hearing companion has no formal language support beyond written exchange with the doctor — which is impractical in brief, rapid consultations.

The deaf and hard of hearing Pakistani diaspora in the United Kingdom faces a different version of the same barrier. Pakistani-British deaf patients navigating NHS consultations conducted in English experience the convergence of language and hearing access barriers simultaneously. Captio AI captions Urdu in real time — across Urdu–English code-switching, aspiration contrasts invisible on the lips, and the formal medical vocabulary — so a deaf patient can read their diagnosis and prescription as the doctor speaks.

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
Privacy

What 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.

100% PRIVATE

Private by default

Download on theApp Store
Reviews

People love Captio AI

"The doctor explains in Urdu and switches to English for every test and drug name. I was missing the most important part every time. Captio AI captions both. I know the diagnosis and the prescription before I leave the chair."

Sara A. 🇵🇰
sara.a***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Lahore, hospital OPD

"My cardiologist speaks fast Urdu with English terms mixed in. I was nodding at the clinical terms I couldn't follow. Captio AI captions the whole consultation. I ask the right questions now."

Kamran H. 🇵🇰
kamran.h***@gmail.com
Deaf, Karachi, private specialist

"My GP speaks Urdu with me and I still miss things in a short NHS appointment. Captio AI captions the whole consultation. I leave understanding the follow-up instructions for the first time."

Zara M. 🇬🇧
zara.m***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Bradford, Urdu-speaking GP

"The chemist explains the dosage in Urdu very quickly. I was guessing and then checking the box. Captio AI captions the counter conversation. I know the instructions before I leave."

Ali R. 🇵🇰
ali.r***@gmail.com
Progressive hearing loss, Islamabad, pharmacy

"The doctor explains in Urdu and switches to English for every test and drug name. I was missing the most important part every time. Captio AI captions both. I know the diagnosis and the prescription before I leave the chair."

Sara A. 🇵🇰
sara.a***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Lahore, hospital OPD

"My cardiologist speaks fast Urdu with English terms mixed in. I was nodding at the clinical terms I couldn't follow. Captio AI captions the whole consultation. I ask the right questions now."

Kamran H. 🇵🇰
kamran.h***@gmail.com
Deaf, Karachi, private specialist

"My GP speaks Urdu with me and I still miss things in a short NHS appointment. Captio AI captions the whole consultation. I leave understanding the follow-up instructions for the first time."

Zara M. 🇬🇧
zara.m***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing, Bradford, Urdu-speaking GP

"The chemist explains the dosage in Urdu very quickly. I was guessing and then checking the box. Captio AI captions the counter conversation. I know the instructions before I leave."

Ali R. 🇵🇰
ali.r***@gmail.com
Progressive hearing loss, Islamabad, pharmacy

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Understand your diagnosis in Urdu.

Captio AI is free to start

Download for free

Download on theApp Store