Microsoft Teams Gets Improved Sign Language

 New accessibility

Microsoft Teams is getting a sign language view  in theVerge

The new accessibility feature creates a larger, high-quality view for interpreters and signers separate from other call participants or presentations.

By JESS WEATHERBED   Nov 18, 2022, 7:57 AM EST|

A screenshot of Microsoft Teams new sign language view. A signer is prioritized on the left, with another call participants kept separately on the right.

Sign language view allows signers to prioritize up to two video streams on center stage, in a consistent location during every meeting. Image: Microsoft

Microsoft has a new dedicated sign language view for its Microsoft Teams video conferencing platform. The feature enables sign language users to select up to two other participants’ videos to be fixed in a central location, allowing designated signers to be visible throughout the meeting.

Microsoft says Teams users can enable the feature for all meetings or on a meeting-by-meeting basis, which is especially useful for non-hearing impaired signers. Sign language interpreters can be pre-assigned prior to starting a meeting if they’re within your organization, and external interpreters can only be assigned within a meeting using the Accessibility tab in the app settings. Microsoft does not provide sign language interpreters for Teams meetings.

Sign language view doesn’t affect what other call participants can see on Teams

Other participants can still be pinned without encroaching on the prioritized video streams of the signer, which will default to an uncropped ratio at the highest available quality. The prioritized stream shifts when a presentation is shared but will still be easily distinguishable from other participants, retaining a larger size and high video quality. Sign language view is also personal to the user — other call participants will not be alerted or have their own Teams view altered.

Microsoft is also announcing a new sticky Accessibility preferences pane for Teams. The new pane gives users easy access during calls to make changes like turning on sign language view by default or pre-identifying preferred signers. Sign language view and live captions can also be quickly toggled on or off within the pane. ...'

Hybrid Work in Useful Ways

Standardizing probably the best overall solution.  Clear connections to shared work.   Have now worked with a half dozen systems. 

ACM TECHNEWS

Hybrid Work Meetings Are Hell. Tech Is Trying to Fix Them  By The Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2022

Many companies are embracing hybrid work models, with some employees working at home part of the time and others working entirely from home, and technology companies are rolling out new options for hybrid meetings.

Said Microsoft Teams' Greg Baribault, "Conference rooms need to be rethought as hybrid spaces." This involves merging updated conference-room camera technology with software from video-calling platforms like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom.

Camera systems, like Logitech's Rally Bar, which works with Microsoft Teams, use artificial intelligence to show the people speaking on screen as if they were individual meeting participants, without the need for a laptop webcam.

Zoom's Smart Gallery, on supported cameras, can create individual video feeds of each participant and pan as they move.

Meanwhile, Meta's Horizon Workrooms app allows for metaverse meetings with Meta Quest 2 headsets, allowing remote participants to feel as though they are in the same room.

From The Wall Street Journal   

Advancing Remote Work

Microsoft continues advances for remote, multiple person conferencing

Microsoft's plan to make video calls less miserable

Ina Fried, author of Login
screenshot from a Mircrosoft ad that has people sitting in seats in a lecture hall

As the pandemic continues to reshape office work, Microsoft is adding new features to Teams that aim to make video calls more human and less exhausting, including a new "together mode" that puts all participants in a single virtual environment.

Why it matters: Millions are stuck with video conferencing as a key work tool for the next many months (and possibly longer). That creates a huge incentive for tech companies to create a better experience in a market currently dominated by Zoom. .... 

Teams' Together Mode displays the images of the user and all the other participants in a video conference against the same backdrop, ranging from a coffee bar for a couple people to an auditorium for larger gatherings of up to 49 people.

Since users are in a fixed place relative to others (rather than in one of many boxes moving around in a gallery), they can point at each other and make eye contact.
The effect is like sitting in a barber chair, seeing yourself and others in the mirror and having a conversation with them.

Under the hood, the technology draws on understandings from virtual reality applied to a traditional 2D video chat. Indeed, one of the key collaborators on Together mode is Jaron Lanier, a researcher known as the father of VR. ... "

ACM Reports Best Practices for Virtual Conferences

Nicely done,  details at the link.  Taking a look.  Free.

ACM Reports Best Practices for Virtual Conferences
HPCwire
April 16, 2020

A new report from ACM outlines best practices for replacing live science and technology conferences with virtual ones during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report is a practical guide covering a wide range of topics that conference organizers contend with, including required technology, high-level planning, accessibility, nurturing social interaction, navigation, and finances. The guide was created by a task force that included ACM members with experience organizing online conferences and conducting virtual planning sessions. The task force will periodically update and revise the report, and organizers are encouraged to share their own experiences, or make comments or queries. ACM president Cherri M. Pancake said, "Our hope is that the report will also encourage conference organizers to think about reducing their reliance on face-to-face meetings in the future." ... '

Full report here: https://www.acm.org/virtual-conferences