Zoom: Accessibility Considerations & Best Practices

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Under the COVID-19 national emergency, many employers moved to work-from-home situations. Since then, the need for online solutions that enable internal and external communications, team meetings, and virtual trainings has increased.

Zoom is one of the first web-based solutions that provides videotelephony and online chat services through a cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform and is used for teleconferencing, telecommuting, distance education, and social relations. Furthermore, Zoom strives for accessibility and inclusivity for everyone. Zoom applications and web pages are also compliant with both Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA recommendations, with a few exceptions. Full details about how each product complies with each WCAG guideline can be found in the products’ respective VPAT documents can be found here.

The list below is a collection of Zoom considerations and best practices to help make meetings, sessions, and webinars as accessible and engaging as possible for all participants, including participants with disabilities.

Planning

Ask participants prior to the meeting event whether they will need accessibility accommodations. This can be done through the event registration page or through direct email.

Below is sample language that can be used:

“(Company Name) is committed to a welcoming and accessible experience. If you need accommodations or accessibility to join and participate in the (event name), please contact (name, contact information).”

Participants’ responses can then help with the planning process of ensuring accessibility and inclusivity during the planned virtual event.

It is also a best practice to share any event materials, links, or other resources with your audience before the session starts.

Introductions

At the beginning of the meeting announce if the session is being live captioned and if a recording with accurate captions will be provided after the event’s conclusion.

Then introduce yourself using your name, pronouns, locations, and room description. Remember to use visual descriptions of self and your environment. For people who are blind or low vision, or for people participating by phone or otherwise without a screen, i.e., people driving, having presenters visually describe themselves during their introductions paints a picture of the speakers.

An example on an introduction is as follows:

“My name is Lissette. I use she/her/ella pronouns. I am a Latina woman in my 30s with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and am wearing a cream sweater. I am sitting in front of a gray wall at my home in Atlanta, Georgia.”

Have participants identify themselves when speaking throughout the meeting. This is particularly important for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HOH) community. Developing a culture of beginning a question or comment by saying “Lissette speaking” and having speakers identifying themselves is also important to allow the interpreter or captionist to follow the conversation.

A best practice to introduce is also to dismantle systems and “rules” about etiquette for disability justice. Allow the audience to move their body as they need. Be as they are. Be as they need to be.

Consent

Video communication is a powerful way to speak up and be heard but it can silence voices too. It is important to find ways to allow the audience and yourself to feel safe during virtual events. At the end of the day, virtual space is personal space.

Below are some tips on exploring consent in virtual spaces:

Ask permission to mute/unmute participants.
Ask permission to call upon participants.
Remind audience that they may leave/turn off camera whenever they chose.
Use simple and clear descriptions of your screen.
Be transparent about Zoom recording features.
Create agreements and explore consent before 1:1 chatting.

Captioning

Captioning is critical for members of the D/HOH community, but it is also very beneficial for all participants. Captions are also helpful when a presenter has a strong accent or whose speaking voice is hard to understand. A video with captions can also be slowed down to allow individuals who are not native English speakers to better comprehend and understand the information displayed. Also, an accurate transcript can be easily translated to most participants' native language, allowing for better comprehension of the topic discussed.

Zoom provides free automated live captioning for all Zoom accounts. Participants will be notified that live captions are available, and can choose to turn them on or not. Please note that automated live captions are not accurate enough to be used to fulfill a captioning accommodation. For captioning accommodations, you will need to use live captioning provided by a person (not an automated service).

For more information on Zoom’s captioning services, please visit go here.

Sign Language

When hosting a virtual event with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, it is vital to have a qualified sign language interpreter available to translate spoken words into sign language. One of the benefits of having a sign language interpreter during an event is that it is much easier for sign language users to keep track of who's speaking. And unlike sign language interpretation, captions rarely indicate sound effects or music.

In the main Zoom room, the host can spotlight the interpreter for everyone. In breakout rooms, interpreters need to be pinned by individuals. For webinars, the interpreter must be invited as a panelist.

For more information on pinning and spotlighting sign language interpreters in Zoom, please go here.

Sound Quality

Sound quality is important for all users and critical for participants who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HoH), and is important for individuals with ADHD, autism, and more.

When speaking, ensure you are in a noise-free environment and speak clearly, slowly, and close to the microphone. When using a laptop’s built-in microphone and speakers, the sound may work just fine but can be improved by using a headset with a microphone or an external computer microphone.

The host can also remind participants to mute themselves unless they are speaking. If participants are not consistently muting themselves, the host can ask permission from the audience to mute all participants except for the current speaker.

Video

It is best to provide the option for participants to choose not to enable their video during virtual meetings. Some attendees may prefer to not turn on their video in a meeting for a variety of reasons, such as medical privacy concerns, concerns about the ways in which the use of video may reveal or highlight disabilities, the anxiety or distraction that being on video can cause, and more.

Chat

In-meeting chat can be very useful during meetings, including as a participation channel for people who are working in noisy environments. There are accessibility considerations to keep in mind though.

Some participants with disabilities may be unable to access or fully utilize chat. Some users may decide to not monitor the chat because they can't do so while focusing on the verbal conversation. Assistive technology users can access, read, and contribute to chat, but may be unable to activate links in the chat window.

Participants who are calling in to a meeting will not be able to see or contribute to the chat. Finally, all users run the risk of losing important links or content from the chat if this information is not saved in some way.

Due to these limitations, it is recommend that when using chat in Zoom:

Avoid side conversations in chat. If important questions or points are made in the chat, make sure to repeat them out loud so everyone knows what was said.
Share chat content through additional channels. Send links from the chat to all participants by email before or after the meeting. Optionally, the entire chat can be saved to share with others.

For more information on chatting in a Zoom meeting, please go here.

Recording

Recording a session can be very helpful for people with disabilities who may wish to review the content at a later date or for those that don’t have a reliable or stable internet connection. Adding transcripts and captions to the recording will benefit many participants as well, not only those with hearing-related disabilities. This is especially true if the speaker has a strong accent or is difficult to understand for other reasons.

When recording an event, the host will need to determine where the recording will be stored and how to share the recording with the audience.

For more information on Zoom’s recording features, please go here.

Screen Sharing

Sharing a screen during an event is a good way to display a visual presentation or other media but is important to understand that a person who is visually impaired or using a screen reader software will not be able to understand the content being shared. This is also true if the participant is calling in or has a bad internet connection.

Recommendations for when sharing a screen are as follows:

For the benefit of anyone who may be unable to see your screen, verbalize what is seen and the actions you are taking.
When referring to something being shared on screen, please give a pause so participants who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HoH) may turn away from their interpreter or captions and look at what is being referred to.
Share materials ahead of time. This allows everyone to access the materials and follow along even if they cannot see the screen share during the meeting.

Polling

Polls are a great way to increase participation during meetings or to survey participants. Hosts should keep the following best practices in mind:

Ensure everyone can participate. The polling feature is accessible to people who use assistive technology. It is not usable, however, by people who are joining a meeting by phone. If you have participants joining by phone, offer an alternative way for them to send in feedback.
Alert participants when launching a poll. Notify participants verbally when you are launching a poll. This is especially helpful for assistive technology users as well as anyone who may not be looking at their screen.
Give enough time. Allow plenty of time for participants to find and participate in the poll.

For more information of Zoom’s polling features, please go here: here.

Reactions

Reactions can be a great way for participants to interact and provide feedback during a presentation. However, not all participants may be able to see reactions before they disappear, and it may take additional time for some users with disabilities to locate and enable reactions. If you plan to require all attendees to use reactions as a way to take a poll, we recommend using the polling feature instead. Reactions are best used as a voluntary and non-essential method of participation.

Non-Tech

Accessibility and inclusion require more than accessible technology. Some best practices for non-tech inclusion include:

Making it a practice for speakers to always introduce themselves before speaking.
Reminding participants not to interrupt – always good for everyone, but especially important for people relying on captioning and sign language interpreters.
Being sure to describe all visual content on slides, including visual content in videos.