Captio AI
🦻 Accessibility + 💻 Productivity App

Tamil live captions and productivity tool for job interviews

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.

👔In-person interviews

In a Chennai, Coimbatore, or Madurai office — an interviewer speaking formal Tamil at corporate pace. Captio AI captions every question in real time so you read the full sentence before responding.

💻Video interviews

Google Meet or Zoom in Tamil corporate environments. Put the call on speaker, open Captio AI, and follow every question in real time whether in Tamil or English.

📞Phone screens and initial calls

HR screening calls in Tamil — fast, formal, often mixed with English. Captio AI captions the recruiter's voice in real time so compressed audio and code-switching do not become barriers.

👥Panel interviews

Panel interviews at Tamil Nadu's major employers — from Chennai banks and IT firms to manufacturing companies. Captio AI follows each panelist in real time even as they shift between Tamil and English.

🌍International and foreign-language interviews

For roles at multinationals in Chennai or the Tamil-speaking corridors of Bengaluru where interviews move between Tamil and English. Live Translator handles both in the same session.

🎯Assessment centres

Group discussions — common in Tamil Nadu banking and management graduate hiring. Captio AI covers the facilitator's instructions and every participant's contribution in real time.

Performance

Most accurate and fastest models

Tamil
90.4%

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 room where a missed word has real consequences

Read the full question before you answer

Every word appears on screen as the interviewer speaks. You read the question completely before responding — nothing guessed, nothing reconstructed.

Works in person and on any call format

In-person interviews, video calls, phone screens. Place the phone on the table or point it toward the audio — Captio AI handles every format.

Discreet by design

The app runs quietly on your phone. Place it on the table or hold it naturally. No explanation needed, no drawing attention to the accommodation.

No asking for repeats

Asking an interviewer to repeat a question signals uncertainty. Captio AI means you never need to — you read it in real time and answer with confidence.

Any language

For international roles, multilingual panels, or interviews conducted in a second language. Live Translator captions and translates in real time so language is never the barrier.

Private by default

Interview conversations are sensitive. Captio AI processes audio in real time and discards it immediately — nothing is stored, nothing is shared.

Tamil

Why Tamil is hard to understand

Diglossia gap

  • Formal interview Tamil is a different register from everyday spoken Tamil
  • Tamil has one of the most documented diglossia situations in the world — Senthamizh (literary/formal Tamil) used in official and corporate interviews differs from everyday spoken Kodunthamizh in grammar, vocabulary, and verb endings. Tamil children learn the spoken variety at home and the literary variety at school; a deaf candidate whose visual vocabulary comes from everyday Tamil may not recognise the literary verb forms and formal nouns used in a Chennai or Coimbatore corporate interview.

Retroflex series

  • Tamil's retroflex sounds — including ழ (zh) — are invisible on the lips
  • Tamil has an extensive retroflex consonant set including ட, ண, ள, ழ, ற — each produced with a different tongue position curled toward the hard palate. The retroflex lateral (ள /ɭ/) and retroflex rhotic (ழ /ɻ/) are unique phonemes distinct to Tamil and are phonemically distinctive. All produce near-identical visible lip positions to their non-retroflex counterparts. In an interview, these contrasts are systematic and invisible to a lip-reader.

Tamil-English code-switching

  • Chennai and Bengaluru tech interviews mix Tamil and English mid-sentence
  • Tamil corporate interviews — particularly in Chennai's financial sector and the Tamil-speaking corridors of Bengaluru's tech industry — regularly mix Tamil and English within the same sentence. A deaf candidate tracking Tamil may be watching an English technical term mid-question with no visible signal of the language shift.

Vowel length contrasts

  • Short and long vowel pairs change meaning but compress in fast speech
  • Tamil distinguishes 5 short vowels and 5 long vowels — each pair (a/ā, i/ī, u/ū, e/ē, o/ō) differs in length. Vowel length carries meaning. In fast interview speech, length distinctions compress and the visual difference between a short and long vowel at interview pace is minimal.

Formal pronoun and honorific system

  • Literary Tamil uses different pronoun forms and verb suffixes from spoken Tamil
  • Formal Tamil uses 'nīṅkaḷ' (you plural/polite) where everyday Tamil might use 'nī'; formal verb endings in Senthamizh differ from spoken register. In a formal interview, the interviewer uses morphology that sounds and looks different from casual speech. A deaf candidate reading lips for casual Tamil word shapes is watching a grammatically distinct register.

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
The Challenge

63 million with hearing loss in India — and a World Bank project confirming Tamil Nadu's disability access gap

India has an estimated 63 million people with significant hearing loss. Tamil Nadu, one of India's most industrialised states, hosts a World Bank-funded project (RIGHTS: Inclusion, Accessibility and Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities in Tamil Nadu, P176404) that explicitly identifies disability inclusion gaps in employment and public services — recognising that existing infrastructure has not adequately served people with hearing impairments. Tamil Nadu also has an unusual demographic pattern in India: it is among the few states where the number of disabled females is higher than disabled males, suggesting distinct gender and disability dynamics in the state's labour market.

The RPWD Act 2016 mandates a 4% employment quota in government jobs and requires reasonable accommodations for disabled workers. In Tamil Nadu's private sector — dominated by IT services, automotive manufacturing, textile production, and financial services — implementation is inconsistent. The interview stage at Chennai's major employers is an oral, structured process conducted in formal Tamil, English, or both. No legal standard requires captioning or sign language interpretation to be provided at the interview itself.

The Deaf Enabled Foundation operates across South India including Tamil-speaking regions, providing vocational training and placement. But the interview — the gateway to employment — remains largely inaccessible to deaf candidates without their own support. Tamil's diglossia gap means formal interview speech looks different from everyday spoken Tamil on the lips. Its retroflex consonant system creates systematic visual ambiguities. And code-switching with English mid-sentence means two languages must be tracked simultaneously. Captio AI requires no employer arrangement: open the app, place the phone on the desk, and every Tamil question — Senthamizh register and all — appears in real time.

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 banking panel used formal Tamil I don't hear in everyday conversation. Captio AI gave me the Senthamizh vocabulary in full. I answered every question correctly and made it to the final round."

Anitha R. 🇮🇳
anitha.r***@gmail.com
Moderate sensorineural hearing loss, Chennai

"The IT interview switched between Tamil and English every few sentences. With Captio AI I had both on screen simultaneously. I never lost track of a question."

Karthik S. 🇮🇳
karthik.s***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing since childhood, Chennai

"Group discussions in Tamil are impossible to follow when six people are speaking at once. Captio AI tracked whoever was talking. I contributed to every point and the evaluator said I was one of the strongest candidates."

Meena V. 🇮🇳
meena.v***@gmail.com
Sensorineural hearing loss, Coimbatore

"The phone screen was in formal Tamil with code-switching to English. Captio AI captioned both in real time. I answered every question and went through to the panel stage for the first time."

Vijay P. 🇮🇳
vijay.p***@gmail.com
Progressive hearing loss, Madurai

"The banking panel used formal Tamil I don't hear in everyday conversation. Captio AI gave me the Senthamizh vocabulary in full. I answered every question correctly and made it to the final round."

Anitha R. 🇮🇳
anitha.r***@gmail.com
Moderate sensorineural hearing loss, Chennai

"The IT interview switched between Tamil and English every few sentences. With Captio AI I had both on screen simultaneously. I never lost track of a question."

Karthik S. 🇮🇳
karthik.s***@gmail.com
Hard of hearing since childhood, Chennai

"Group discussions in Tamil are impossible to follow when six people are speaking at once. Captio AI tracked whoever was talking. I contributed to every point and the evaluator said I was one of the strongest candidates."

Meena V. 🇮🇳
meena.v***@gmail.com
Sensorineural hearing loss, Coimbatore

"The phone screen was in formal Tamil with code-switching to English. Captio AI captioned both in real time. I answered every question and went through to the panel stage for the first time."

Vijay P. 🇮🇳
vijay.p***@gmail.com
Progressive hearing loss, Madurai

Download for free

Download on theApp Store
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Hear every question in Tamil.

Captio AI is free to start

Download for free

Download on theApp Store