Ten things to improve conference call accessibility

WFH has made video conference accessibility more critical than ever, especially for participants with disabilities. Try to avoid these pitfalls.

Sheri Byrne-Haber, CPACC

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Man and woman on split-screen participating in zoom conference call
Photo by visuals on Unsplash

Authors note: Because of Medium’s refusal to address its accessibility issues for both authors and readers, I’ve moved my last three years of blogs to Substack. Please sign up there for notices of all new articles. Also, I will be updating older articles (like this one) and the updates will only be published on Substack. Thank you for your continued readership and support.

All of us are suffering from zoom fatigue at the moment. But people with disabilities frankly have it harder. My in-person meetings have shifted to 100 % video calls. After 5 to 6-hour blocks of topics that can shift every 30 minutes, I always have a headache at the end of the day from trying to concentrate and understand the tiny print that can’t be magnified on my side compounded by listening with dogs barking and children asking “is the call over yet” in the background.

Sound

Imagine being deaf or having a significant hearing loss that makes hearing a conference call presenter difficult. Here are things you can do to avoid creating issues for your participants with…

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Sheri Byrne-Haber, CPACC

LinkedIn Top Voice for Social Impact 2022. UX Collective Author of the Year 2020. Disability Inclusion SME. Sr Staff Accessibility Architect @ VMware.