Accessible Teaching and Learning in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams offers a number of features that can enhance the accessibility of an online teaching and learning session for any user whether they are an instructor or a student. Awareness and promotion of accessibility features within Microsoft Teams is essential for inclusive online teaching and learning.

This page will introduce you to the following four accessibility features: captions and transcripts, translation of slides in PowerPoint Live, activating high colour contrast of slides and pinning video feeds.

Enabling Captions in Microsoft Teams (User-focused)

For some learners, particularly those who have English as a second language, or who are taking a discipline with complex terminology, disciplines, captions can be an essential tools for aiding comprehension.

The live captions feature in Microsoft Teams is user-focused, meaning each individual in the meeting can decide whether or not to enable them, and will show at the bottom of the meeting with attribution each time a different person speaks.

In order to enable them in Microsoft Teams:

1. Start or join a meeting in Microsoft Teams.
2. Once you’re in the meeting, access the More tab from the menu.

3. Within the Language and Speech tab of the More menu you will find the option to Turn on live captions. Alternatively, you can locate the Accessibility menu within settings, and turn on captions by default for all your Microsoft Teams sessions. Captions will start appearing at the bottom of the screen.

Note: Live captions are generated automatically by Microsoft Teams and the accuracy of captions will vary based on the speaker’s voice and microphone quality.

Enabling the Transcript (when not Recording)

When you record a meeting in Microsoft Teams the Transcript is automatically enabled, this keeps a record of all speech within the meeting and can be referred to both during and after the meeting has occurred. Even if you are not recording the meeting, you can enable the transcript, to allow those in attendance to refer back to what was said.

1. Start or join a meeting in Microsoft Teams.
2. Once you’re in the meeting, access the More tab from the menu.

3. Then open the Record and transcribe tab, this will reveal the option to start recording and to start transcription.

Enable Translation of Slides in PowerPoint Live

When an instructor shares their PowerPoint using PowerPoint Live within Microsoft Teams, those in attendance can make use of Microsoft’s Translation features to view the slides in their preferred language. The translation when enabled is only visible to the user who activated it, and will not alter the viewing experience for all those in attendance.

Activating PowerPoint Live (for Instructors)

1. Join a meeting in Microsoft Teams.
2. Click on the Share button.

3. Then under the PowerPoint Live section, choose the PowerPoint file you wish to present.

Enabling Translation of Slides (for Attendees)

1. Select the More options icon (three dots) at the bottom of the PowerPoint Live interface and choose Translate slides and then choose a language. The translated slides will now be visible in the chosen language.

Activating High Colour Contrast of Slides

Strong contrast between text and background makes it easier for people with low vision or colour blindness to see and use the content. In a similar way to translating slides with PowerPoint live, attendees can enable the high contrast view of PowerPoint slides for them, without impacting the experience for others in attendance.

1. Select the More options icon (three dots) at the bottom of the PowerPoint Live interface.
2. Select the toggle switch to activate ‘view slides in high contrast’.

How to Pin a Video

The ability to ‘pin’ video in Microsoft Teams useful for students who rely on lip-reading or need a larger view of specific participants – most likely the instructor within the session, though this can be beneficial for all.

When a user ‘pins’ a video it is only made larger for them, and it does not impact the other participants, if you wish to highlight a video for all attendees of the sessions you should use the ‘spotlight for everyone’ feature.

1. During a meeting in Microsoft Teams, hover over the video that you want to pin.
2. Look for the More icon (three dots) that appears in the corner of the video.

3. Choose the option to ‘pin for me’ on the video. The pinned video feed will now remain visible to you.

Note: You can pin multiple video feeds simultaneously to create a custom view for lip-reading or focusing on specific participants.