Accessibility

Accessibility Tips for Microsoft Teams

Last modified 5/17/2024

Microsoft Teams is a communication app that allows for individual/group chatting, calls, channel communication, file share, and more.

Using Teams with assistive technology

In this section, using teams with assistive technology will be covered. Assistive technology products can include, screen readers, screen magnification software, text to speech readers, and more.

Using Teams with a Screen reader on desktop

  1. In the home screen of teams, there are various tabs such as chat, activity, and teams. You can press control(windows) or command(mac) plus the numbers on your keyboard to quickly get to these tabs.
  • Pressing control or command plus 1 opens the activity tab.
  • Pressing control or command plus 2 opens the chat tab.
  • Pressing control or command plus 3 opens the teams tab.
  • Pressing control or command plus 4 opens the assignments tab.
  • Pressing control or command plus 5 opens the calendar tab
  • Note: Sometimes on windows after switching tabs on teams the screen reader doesn't announce the tab has been switched. Navigate your screen to observe the change if it is not spoken.

More Teams tips for desktop

  1. In the list of chat conversations, you can quickly jump to a chat’s messages by pressing space on the conversations. Your screen readers focus will land in the list of messages.
  2. You can quickly jump from the list of messages in a chat to the chat list by pressing the escape key.
  3. If you would not like to jump to the messages of a chat, and would rather go directly to typing a message, press enter on the desired chat.
  4. Need to search for something? Just press control plus E(windows) or command plus E(mac,) to quickly jump to the search box.
  5. Use the f6 key to quickly get to different sections of teams. Pressing this key moves you to the search box, the main teams tab order, and the current area of teams you have open. **only works on Windows

If you'd like to learn more of the keyboard shortcuts used in Microsoft Teams, find Microsoft’s support article linked here : Read Microsoft's support article to learn more about keyboard shortcuts in Teams.

Using Teams on Mobile(IOS)

  1. The main tabs of teams: activity, chat, teams, assignments, calendar, and more, are all tabs at the bottom of the app. You can quickly get to the tab bar by pressing the bottom of your screen with four fingers. This will land you at the bottom of the tabs. 
  2. While the "more menu" at the top of the app and the "more" tab at the bottom of the app have a similar name, they serve very different purposes. The more menu allows for adjustments to your status, work location, profile settings, and more. The more tab has additional functions of teams like files and camera.
  3. If you are in the main screen of  teams, tap four fingers towards the top of your devices display to focus your screen reader on the more menu.