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2938

Are there any tips for hosting an accessible Zoom Meeting?

10 steps for hosting accessible Zoom meetings

Before the meeting

1. Contact attendees in advance: ask if they have any specific needs, inform them if any group work interactions will be involved, and send links to resources in advance (ensure resources/visual aids are accessible using the digital accessibility toolkit).

2. Check sound and image quality: use a microphone/headset if possible and find somewhere quiet. Face square on to the screen so your mouth is clearly visible.

3. When creating a meeting ensure you tick Mute participants upon entry, Automatically record meeting in the cloud.  You set this as default in your Zoom Meeting profile where you additional settings are available including ‘Always show meeting control toolbar’.

Starting the meeting

4. Enable subtitles and “Spotlight” sign language interpreters if applicable. Although some students will find captions helpful, others may find them distracting and will need to turn off on their own displays. Show students how to turn off subtitles if needed (dependent on devices in use)

5. Record the meeting so that attendees can play back at a slower speed if required and so that transcript is saved.

6. Advise how and when to ask questions e.g. use chat, unmute and speak, raise hand, add to collaborative document outside Zoom.

During the meeting

7. Use a slow pace of delivery and mute when not talking. The space bar will take you off mute while pressed down.

8. Describe visual content (annotations, graphs, images/video conveying information). Not all participants can access polls, read out questions when they are used. 

9. Manage the chat. Some find chat too much to deal with on top of the video and audio so try to voice key points from the chat.

If using breakout rooms: highlight ‘Ask for help’, place in groups of 3 or more in case one person is not fully present/can’t access, for group work ask one person to summarise/contribute to collaborative document so it is likely at least one person will be able to do so (if not accessible for all). 

After the meeting 

10. End the meeting and share the video and chat transcript.

If captions is not available on the device you are using you may find the Chrome accessibility option for closed captions useful.  See ITS FAQ 2936 How to show onscreen live captions on any video