Audio to subtitles

[Lee Schierer]

I have a friend that is hearing impaired. His doctor wants to do virtual appointments, but he will be unable to hear the audio. Is there an app that can be installed that will convert all audio to text on the screen as the audio is playing. Like watching a you tube video and getting subtitles while you watch it.

[Michael Weber]

Lee, InnoCaption may be able to help. I know that it works with the Zoom app. Not sure of others. You call a special number using your free InnoCaption number, provide the meeting number and it will caption the dialog. InnoCaption is a free captioning service for the deaf and hoh and runs on smart phones. The user has the option of using a live captioning assistant or voice recognition for captions. I have found InnoCaption essential for when I just HAVE to use the phone and can’t have my wife do it for me. Having spent decades avoiding telephones I don’t use it real often but have found that the voice recognition option generally provides good accuracy. With live communication assistants the accuracy and speed does vary some. I don’t know if your friend has ever used a captioning service but it’s just like a regular phone conversation. The other person is unaware of any difference except there is usually a slight delay in the deaf persons response as they read the captioning which may be a word or a few behind. I always explain this delay situation at the beginning of a conversation so the other party know to wait a bit for my response. Your friend can check it out and practice using it with Zoom with a friend to see if it may work for them.
edited to also say there is an app named AVA that uses voice recognition to caption face to face conversations. Your friend may be able to simply use the AVA app placing his smart phone or pad near the other devices speaker. I’ve found it to be accurate with adequate volume. It also can use a wired or Bluetooth microphone for the conversation source. AVA requires Internet access to work. Both of these apps have been liberating for me.

[Bill Dufour]

As a teacher I can say that for the last 25 years or so they have said the existing text to speech programs work sorta okay but, wait just two years and the text to voice programs will work much better and be a godsend for poor readers. I assume it is similar for the deaf folks and captioning services.
Bill D.