ABACO Project — AI speech-to-text captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Trieste

ABACO ('Abbattimento delle Barriere Comunicative') is a project of the Office for Disability Policy of the Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, devised and coordinated by the Audiology Department of the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo Pediatric Hospital in Trieste with the National Board for the Deaf (Ente Nazionale Sordi), the University of Perugia and Perugia Hospital, and the deaf-rights association FIADDA, financed with €4 million by the Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Help students with hearing loss access spoken lessons through AI-driven speech-to-text captioning, alongside measures to reduce classroom background noise.

First phase focused on school-age children, deploying AI captioning systems; a structured strategic evaluation published in Audiology Research (MDPI, August 2025) surveyed 22 project-affiliated stakeholders (professionals, special-education teachers, researchers, a student with hearing loss, and a FIADDA-affiliated parent), of whom 16 completed a structured SWOT survey, yielding 194 open-ended responses; earlier questionnaire rounds piloted the approach with University of Perugia students and Friuli Venezia Giulia secondary schools.

The SWOT/TOWS analysis identified strengths (improved communication, support for inclusive practice, adaptability to diverse learning needs), weaknesses (cognitive load on students, synchronisation delays, variability across student profiles), and threats (poor classroom acoustics, risk of social stigma), producing 17 concrete recommendations for improving usability and customisation.

This is a qualitative stakeholder-perception study, not a controlled evaluation of learning outcomes, drawn from a small, internally-sampled pool; its value lies in transparently documenting both the promise and real implementation risks of AI captioning rather than in proving large-scale, causal learning gains.