>
Microsoft Teams is getting a significant upgrade to its accessibility tools that should make the video conferencing platform better for more users.
In a Microsoft blog post (opens in new tab) accessibility architect Chris Sano announced the creation of a “best-in-class experience for the deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) community” on Teams.
Sano, who is deaf himself, was tasked with making the platform more accessible, and the first release – Sign Language View – is now ready and hopes to improve the way D/HH users participate in Microsoft Teams, to change.
Teams Sign Language Display
If needed, the video feeds of up to two sign language interpreters are kept in a consistent location, allowing D/HH meeting participants to dive right into the conversation. The video tiles are also designed to have an optimal shape and size, and automatically stream at the highest possible quality.
In a commitment to listening to customer feedback, Microsoft has made Sign Language Display preferences “sticky” so that settings don’t have to be reapplied for each conversation.
According to Sano, you can also “identify in advance a set of preferred signatories that you regularly work with within your organization, for example your regular interpreters (or for interpreters, your regular clients).” There is also an option to enable closed captioning by default for all your meetings.
Sano is asking D/HH customers to continue to provide feedback through the “Help” menu from within Teams, or to call the US helpdesk to communicate directly in ASL.
It’s expected to roll out “in the coming weeks,” which coincides with a listing on the company roadmap (opens in new tab) stating a general availability in December 2022. At this time, a version of Sign Language View has been rolled out to the Public Preview Program (opens in new tab) per user, so maybe you can get it that way too.