English live captions and productivity tool for lectures

Over 18 million adults in the UK are deaf, have hearing loss, or have tinnitus — a figure updated from the 2021 census that includes people with milder loss previously uncounted (RNID, 2024). Of those, 2.4 million have a level of hearing loss that means they would struggle to hear most conversational speech. 62% of people with hearing loss in the UK report isolation or reduced confidence as a direct consequence (RNID, 2023 Health and Wellbeing Survey). The university lecture — the primary format of UK higher education — is a setting specifically designed around hearing.

The attainment gap begins before students reach university. Just 34% of deaf students in England gained two A-levels or equivalent qualifications, compared to 55% of hearing students — a gap reflecting years of accumulated access failures in mainstream classrooms (NDCS and Education Policy Institute, 2023). By the time deaf students reach university they are already carrying a deficit built from years of lectures, seminars, and discussions where access was partial at best. A 2025 study found that 23.2% of deaf and hard of hearing learners left further education without any recognised qualifications at all (Williams, NADP, 2025).

Inside UK universities, the accommodation infrastructure has not kept pace. Real-time captioning must be booked in advance, requires disclosure of a disability, and is unavailable for many session types — guest speakers, ad-hoc tutorials, and online-only formats often fall outside what can be arranged. Qualified BSL interpreters with specialist subject knowledge are in critically short supply. There has been a 26% decline in qualified Teachers of the Deaf across the UK since 2011 (NDCS), and the pipeline into specialist higher education support roles has followed. A Disabled Students' Allowance of up to £20,725 per year is available — but only after disclosure, assessment, and approval, none of which helps a deaf student in a lecture starting at nine tomorrow.