Uni-voice

Inspiration

Communication should never be a barrier. Uni-voice was inspired by the everyday challenges faced by deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals during live conversations, lectures, and meetings. While many speech tools exist, few are designed with accessibility as the primary focus or provide a seamless, real-time experience. We wanted to build a simple yet powerful tool that promotes inclusive communication and gives users confidence in spoken environments.

What it does

Uni-voice is an accessibility-first web application that enables real-time voice-to-text and text-to-voice communication. It allows hearing-impaired users to instantly read spoken conversations and respond using synthesized voice output. Users can securely log in and access their transcription history, making the tool useful beyond one-time interactions.

How we built it

Uni-voice was built using a modern web stack with accessibility and performance in mind:

Frontend: React with a clean, distraction-free interface and adjustable font sizes
Speech Processing: Real-time speech-to-text and text-to-speech powered by AI models
Authentication & Database: Supabase for secure user authentication and transcript storage
Deployment: Hosted on Vercel for fast and reliable access

Supabase plays a core role by managing user sessions and storing user-specific transcripts with proper data isolation.

Challenges we ran into

Handling real-time audio streams while keeping transcription latency low
Managing partial and final transcription updates without cluttering the UI
Designing an interface that remains readable and intuitive for different accessibility needs
Balancing feature scope within the hackathon timeline

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building a fully functional real-time transcription system
Creating an accessibility-focused UI with adjustable font scaling
Securely storing user-specific transcription history
Successfully integrating authentication and backend services in a short timeframe

What we learned

Accessibility should be considered from the start, not added later
Real-time applications require careful state and resource management
Backend platforms like Supabase significantly speed up development without sacrificing best practices
Small, well-designed features can have meaningful real-world impact