Microsoft Teams has had an important place in the school and business world since November 2016. Although the platform is liked by users, it also has some important shortcomings. One of them is the sign language view for hearing impaired users. Finally, Microsoft is closing this gap and adding a sign language mode to Teams.
What is Sign Language View?
Microsoft promises a better display setup to users who are hard of hearing with its sign language view. When enabled, one or two translators are placed in the middle of the screen by expanding the interface. In this way, the hearing impaired user can follow the conversations from the middle of the screen.
In the speech, the interpreters are not chosen randomly, but according to the user votes in the meeting. Users who are speaking and want to be a translator can make a request through the application.
Microsoft Teams breaks the language barrier!
Microsoft Teams aims to greatly improve the efficiency of meetings held in multiple languages.
The person selected as the translator within the scope of the feature occupies the largest area on the screen. If something important is to be shown on the screen, the translator is positioned on the other side of the screen. The images of other people in the conversation are sorted according to their activity.
This feature is available during the meeting. momentary can be activated or default can be kept active continuously. To do this, it is enough to turn on the “Sign Language Display” option from the accessibility section in the settings menu.
In testing phase
Feature on Teams in testing offered to users. Microsoft‘s is expected to make this feature generally available in Teams’ desktop and web apps in the coming weeks. You can also test the feature in this process, send feedback to Microsoft and support the development.
So what do you think about this? Do you think Microsoft will be able to make Teams much more useful for hearing impaired users? Don’t forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments section!