Persian live captions and productivity tool for everyday conversations

Estimates of Iran's deaf and hard of hearing population range from 1.5 to 3 million people, though only around 200,000 are formally registered with social welfare services — a gap that reflects both the stigma around disability in Iranian society and the limited reach of formal registration systems. For deaf people navigating Persian-speaking daily life, exclusion operates at multiple levels simultaneously: the language they use naturally (Iranian Sign Language) is not legally recognised; the alternative the state provides (Signed Persian) is documented as difficult to learn and not used naturally; and the everyday settings of Iranian life — bazaars, tea houses, transport, government offices — have no interpreter and no accessibility provision.

Iran endorsed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009 but has not officially recognised sign language. A 2018 Human Rights Watch report documented systematic discrimination and abuse against people with disabilities in Iran, including from social workers and healthcare staff who are meant to support them. For deaf Iranians navigating daily life, this means that the formal settings where accommodation is most expected are often where barriers are most explicit. Everyday informal settings — the bazaar, the tea house, the neighbourhood corner shop — have no accessibility infrastructure at all.

Iran's population is growing and urbanising, with rising noise exposure in dense cities like Tehran, Mashhad, and Isfahan contributing to hearing loss prevalence. The gap between the scale of the deaf and hard of hearing population and the daily-life infrastructure to support them is one of the largest in the region. Captio AI captions Persian speech in real time — including fast colloquial Tehran Farsi and the regional varieties of Iran — so the bazaar, the tea house, and the family gathering are no longer settings you have to navigate alone.