Sign language now available in Teams
Microsoft Teams now has a new view of sign language for meetings. The new accessibility feature will allow people who are deaf or hard of hearing, interpreters, or other meeting participants who use sign language to remain attentive during all meetings.
The new sign language view for Teams meetings will be able to show the video transmissions of the interpreters and other signers in an area large enough for the sign language to be visible. Activation of the sign language view is personal, which means that it will not affect other participants in the meeting.
“With sign language view turned on, the video streams of the people you’ve designated remain visible center stage as long as their video is turned on. Other participants can also be pinned or featured without invading the sign language interpreter,” Microsoft explained.
Before the sign language view was available, meeting organizers had to manually set interpreters and turn on subtitles for each meeting. The new sign language view greatly simplifies this experience. And meeting planners too they can choose the preferred interpreters to highlight them in all meetings.
Sign language view is currently available in public preview in Teams. Microsoft expects it to be available to all desktop users in the coming weeks. “These features are just the beginning, one step on a much longer path”Microsoft also said in the announcement.