Microsoft has introduced a new meeting experience in Teams which helps signers – people who are deaf or hard of hearing and others who use sign language. With the new feature, everyone will be visible when they’re speaking and staying in the same location throughout all meetings.
Microsoft announced their new feature today by publishing a blog post. “Today, we are pleased to announce the viewing of sign language in Microsoft Teams,” they wrote. “We know signers, interpreters and others who use sign language – as well as partners without this knowledge – will appreciate it tremendously.”
Users can prioritize up to two other participants’ videos in Teams Meetings so that they stay visible and consistent throughout the meeting. Once enabled, the prioritized streams will automatically appear at the right aspect ratio as well as with the highest available quality. Microsoft says the feature is personal and won’t impact what others see in the meeting.
“With our sign language view turned on, the video feeds of these designated participants will stay visible on center stage as long as their videos are playing. Other participants can also be pinned or spotlighted without encroaching on the sign language interpreter.”
If someone in the meeting shares a file/document, the prioritized video stream will shift positions. However, the desired size of the stream will remain and the highest quality of available video feeds will always be maintained.
This new feature can be enabled from within the Accessibility menu in Settings. We’ve added a sign language view that’ll be on by default across all meetings. You’ll now have a list of preferred signers to create custom captions with. You’ll also have the option to turn off closed captioning for all meetings or just better focus on your own needs.
