Carbery: Big Captions & AAC

The person who is hard of hearing doesn't have to do anything. That's the whole idea.

Carbery sits on the table between you. You tap your own name, hold the button and talk — and what you said appears in the biggest type the screen will carry, in your colour, with your name above it. They read it as it's said, not summarised for them afterwards. If they want to answer, they tap one of three suggested replies and it is spoken out loud.

WHY THIS ONE GETS USED
Most families have a drawer of things that never got used: the pendant nobody would wear, the amplifier that whistled, the phone still in its box. Every one of them asked the wrong person to change. Carbery is operated entirely by the people who can hear. There is nothing for them to wear, learn, switch on or remember — you set it up once, prop it up at the table, and from their side it is simply a screen with words on it.

NOT ANOTHER TRANSCRIPTION APP
Transcribers are built to caption a lecture or a phone call, on a phone held in your hand. This is built for a table with two people at it.
• Type sized to be read across that table, not held up close
• A name and a colour above every line, so there is never a doubt who said it
• Face the reader — one tap turns the words and the reply cards round towards them, while the controls stay on your side
• One person at a time. No app reliably untangles two voices talking over each other, so this one doesn't pretend to: one press, one speaker, words that can be trusted

HOW IT WORKS
• Hold the microphone button and talk; the words appear as you say them
• Or tap once to keep listening hands-free — good for a quiet one-to-one
• Too loud to be heard? Type instead. The letters stream onto the screen like speech
• Scroll back over everything said in Earlier
• Works on iPad and iPhone; an iPad propped up gives the biggest words
• No account and no sign-in. Following a conversation is free; Carbery Plus lifts the limits, monthly, yearly or once for good

MADE FOR READING
• Captions grow to fill the screen and never shrink below the smallest size you choose
• Warm paper, black-on-white and white-on-black appearances
• The last thing said stays up until the next thing is said — nothing vanishes on a timer
• Twelve languages and accents: English in four accents, plus Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese
• The app itself is in nine languages

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Speech is turned into words on the device itself wherever iOS supports it, so the audio stays in the room. The conversation is never saved — close the app and it is gone. The one thing that touches a server is the optional reply suggestions, and they send text, never audio. Switch them off and nothing leaves at all.

For the kitchen table, the care home visit, the noisy pub and the quiet clinic — anywhere someone has quietly stopped joining in because keeping up has become exhausting. Carbery is not a medical device or a hearing aid, and captions can make mistakes.