With many employers transitioning to work-from-home, virtual offices are increasingly replacing the "traditional" workspace. As such, ensuring those spaces are accessible for all employees, once aspirational for many organizations, is now a baseline requirement.
We examine accessibility features offered by Zoom, which appears to be backing into the virtual office and video conferencing space for the long haul.
Virtual offices
An unexpected hero of the pandemic, Zoom has implemented an array of accessibility features in the last 24 months, including live transcripts and multi-spotlight.
Captioning
Zoom advertises three ways to incorporate captioning technology into their platform: auto-generated captions, manual captions, or third-party captioning.
- Auto-Generated Captions – Automated captioning service that is provided in all meetings.
- Manual Captions – Captioners are ported into the meeting to provide manually typed captions.
- Third-Party Captioning – Zoom now offers third-party integration with closed captioning providers using what is called the "Closed Captioning REST API."
Gone are the days when organizations scrambled to update their subscriptions to access crucial accessibility features. It appears that by and large these features are here to stay, at no additional cost.
Multi-spotlight
Using Zoom's multi-spotlight feature, meeting hosts can spotlight sign language interpreters so that they are in view for everyone. This feature includes tools to make the process seamless.
- Multi-pinning – Meeting hosts can now select participants they want to prioritize and pin them with a custom view.
- Re-arrange Gallery View − Users can create unique views by clicking on and dragging video tiles into view.
The multi-spotlight feature is great for employees who communicate via ASL as well as those who lip-read (an issue that was particularly challenging for many at the onset of the pandemic).
Stiff competition
Of course, Zoom isn't the only game in town. Microsoft Teams and Google Meets have similar accessibility features. Slack is also increasingly being used by organizations with virtual offices, but there was not as much information available about their accessibility efforts (for video calls) as of this writing. Skype has also worked to improve its accessibility features, and WebEx has made significant improvements since 2019.
While Zoom is not the most used video calling software (Skype still leads the crowd), it has clearly carved out a dominating space in video conferencing − something all virtual offices rely on.
In working to improve accessibility across its platform, Zoom reached out to leaders in the community for input. In the State of Ohio, Zoom spoke with Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services (HCDDS) Director of Information Technology Brian Knight about improvements and features that may enhance the user experience from an accessibility point of view.
Now that you have it built-in, [Live Transcription] works flawlessly. We have some hearing-impaired individuals and employees, and having closed captioning helps them out.
Brian raved about Zoom's accessibility improvements, life-work balance, Zoom Phone, and increased attendance in meetings and conferences. But his testimonial on Zoom's ease of use may sum up why Zoom is becoming the leader in providing accessible conference technology.
“We needed to find something that was easy to use — that any other person on the outside can easily get access to. That’s what really drove its popularity with our staff. I like it because it’s so easy to manage. Not having my folks spend time trying to fix issues is worth its weight in gold.”
Conclusion
There are many options to choose from as organizations continue to migrate to work-from-home policies, and accessibility is here to stay. Organizations should follow in the footsteps of leaders like Zoom to ensure their services are usable by the broadest and most diverse user base possible.
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