Inclusive Immersive Meetings
Planning & Setting Up Your Meeting
- Hosts should contact participants well in advance of the meeting to ask if anyone requires specific accommodations.
- Hosts should clearly share what accessibility features will be included in the meeting by default.
- Hosts should make sure that the web, mobile or immersive apps they use to plan or set up a meeting conform to software accessibility standards.
- Hosts should make sure that participants with sensory, physical and cognitive disabilities can access any software that is integrated into hardware devices and is used to set up the meeting.
- Hosts should make sure that participants with disabilities can select their preferred input and output modes that include video, audio, typing and content sharing. For example, a participant might want to use a keyboard to type communications in an immersive meeting instead of using a microphone to speak. Hosts should check to see if there is a setting for this preference that persists across all meetings.
- Hosts should make sure that participants with disabilities can manage their user profiles. This includes their preferred name, thumbnail, avatar and any other personal participant information.
Entering an Immersive Space
- Participants with disabilities should be able to identify, navigate to and enter a virtual or physical space.
- Participants with disabilities should be able to understand the virtual or physical space where the meeting is taking place. For example, they should be able to learn the space’s size, features and immediate surroundings.
- Participants with disabilities should be able to understand the relative position of their body (proprioception) in the virtual or physical space.
Interacting with Other Participants
- Participants with disabilities should be able to understand how many other people are involved in or attending the meeting.
- Participants with disabilities should be able to access information about other participants involved in the meeting. That includes preferred names and photos or avatars.
- Participants with disabilities should be able to understand the relative position of other participants to themselves. When possible, this should happen using spatial audio or visual identifiers.
- Participants with disabilities should be able to block, unblock, mute or unmute individual participants other than themselves.
Sharing Accessible Documents & Materials
- Participants with disabilities should be able to understand the location of focal spaces where presentations, documents or other materials are shared. These can include shared displays, brainstorm walls, poster boards or other collaboration spaces.
- Hosts should ensure the immersive app they are using conveys any accessibility information that is integrated into accessible documents or materials.
- Hosts should ensure that when a participant with disabilities cannot access documents or materials that are shared in the immersive meeting space, they can access the same materials on a different platform.
Communicating in Different Ways
- Captioning of spoken dialogue should be available for all participants. This will ensure that participants who cannot hear or speak or who prefer captions can fully participate. Hosts should check the following:
- Is an automated text alternative or captioning provided that is accurate and presented in real-time?
- Can a third-party captioner be integrated to provide real-time text captions of spoken conversations? For more information on live captioning best practices, refer to PEAT’s article, How to Handle Captioning & ASL Requests for Virtual Meetings.
- Can participants adjust the placement or presentation style of the captions?
- Visual communication methods should be available for all participants. This includes support for communication methods such as sign language, lip-reading, gestures or other visual cues.
- Mute and unmute capabilities should be available for all participants.
- Speaker identification should be available for all participants, including in any text-based communication.
Communicating in Different Languages
- Hosts should check if the immersive meeting app supports multiple spoken or written languages.
- If multiple languages are supported, hosts should verify these languages are supported across all modes of communication.
- Hosts should check if the app provides a way to integrate a sign language interpreter into the space. For example, can they integrate the sign language interpreter into a video feed?
- If integration is possible, hosts should verify that participants can pin, place or fix the video feed of the sign language interpreter in a position that does not obstruct or diminish their ability to participate in the conversation fully.
- Hosts should check that the app supports two-way fluid communication between sign languages and speech/text. This could include combinations of features such as sign language recognition (using computer vision), translation to a spoken or written language, text-to-speech and speech recognition.
- If the app supports two-way communication, hosts should check which sign languages are supported. For example, does the app support American Sign Language, British Sign Language or a different option?
Recording & Getting Transcripts
- Hosts should check if the app provides a running transcript of conversations between participants, including speaker attribution. This transcript should summarize automated or hand-typed captions and be downloadable for use after the meeting.
- Hosts should check if the app offers a way to record conversations and receive affirmative consent from all participants.
- Hosts should check if there is an accessible method for communicating with participants that there will be a meeting transcript or recording. Hosts should give participants the option not to participate or to opt out.
