Accessibility Resources: The Online Classroom

In October of 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or the “Commission”) released its sixth CVAA biennial report to Congress (the “Report”), assessing industry compliance over the past two years with sections 255, 716, and 718 of the Communications Act of 1934, as required by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (“CVAA”).

The report discusses the following specific accessibility problems encountered by video conferencing users with disabilities:

• Ineffective Captioning: Although Zoom, BlueJeans, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, and other video conferencing platforms now offer meeting organizers a choice between third-party live captioning or synchronous automatic captioning to accommodate deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, consumer advocacy organizations pointed out that automated captioning sometimes produces incomplete or delayed transcriptions. They also commented that even if slight delays of live captions cannot be avoided, these delays may cause “cognitive overload.” Comprehension can be further hindered if a person who is deaf or hard of hearing cannot see the faces of speaking participants, because people with hearing loss rely more on nonverbal information than their peers, and if a person misses a visual cue, they may fall behind in the conversation. These observations illustrate a continued need to improve captioning quality and speed.
• Poor Video Quality: Poor video quality can make video conferences inaccessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Switching to audio only mode to conserve bandwidth or otherwise troubleshoot the problem is not an option for people with significant hearing loss. Therefore, video calling providers should actively identify and promptly address any video quality issues with their services that are within their control.
• Inaccessibility of Chat Features with Screen Readers: Screen reading software makes it possible for blind and low vision users to use computers, smartphones, tablets, and other devices with digital user interfaces without sight via text-to-speech and/or Braille output, coupled with keyboard shortcut or special gestures for touch screen devices. While most video conferencing platforms work with screen readers, not all of their chat features are compatible. For example, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) reported that WebEx chat features are difficult (if not impossible) to use with screen readers. AFB also observed that in Microsoft Teams, screen readers cannot find the last chat message in the chat screen. Finally, the National Federation of the Blind noted that many screen readers cannot access the desktop version of Slack.
• Screen Sharing: Screen sharing is generally inaccessible to the blind, because shared content is normally rendered as images that cannot be processed by screen readers.
• Controlling Sound Features: Screen reader and screen magnification users sometimes have difficulty toggling sound and mute features on and off, or do not have access to verbosity settings that allow users to control when notifications are voiced.
• Telehealth: According to a survey of 300 people who are blind or low vision, approximately 57% of respondents reported that they found telehealth to be inaccessible in some way. Some people could not use their screen readers, login to a telehealth platform independently, navigate to make an appointment, read text information or text chat, or communicate privately with their healthcare providers.

Not all videoconferencing software has accessibility features.