[Athen] Web Conferencing Software

[Deborah Armstrong]

> Is there any specific software you would recommend / avoid entirely due to accessibility, and why?


Go To Meeting is wonky with screen readers in my experience. So is Web-Ex. Zoom is wonderful with screen readers.

Note that there is an extensive audio tutorial on using Zoom with screen readers from Jonathon Mosen at:
                https://mosen.org/zoom/
it’s well worth the $35 I spent on it.

Typically screen reader users have worked with Tc Conference, which is the webinar-web conferencing software used by VFO for their online trainings. However it doesn’t have as many visually rich features as zoom. Informally many screen reader users love Teamtalk and TeamSpeak as well as Ventrillo for internet conferencing. These programs are shareware and typically used by gamers, but have a long history of being accessible and free.

Skype is under active development by Microsoft and some versions are more accessible than others. Google hangouts has several interesting features for disabilities that can be investigated – automatic captioning and a screen reader friendly whiteboard.

--Debee

--Debee



From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Priest, Ione
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2018 1:28 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] Web Conferencing Software

Good afternoon all,

Some questions for you regarding web conferencing software:

·         Do your institutions have a contract / agreement with any particular software company? How well does this work out for access purposes?

·         Is there any specific software you would recommend / avoid entirely due to accessibility, and why?

·         What are your experiences with such software used in courses from a general accessibility standpoint?

·         Do you have any experiences using such software in courses utilizing it for group discussions in real-time, particularly with a student using interpreting or captioning for access?

Thank you in advance!

Ione Priest, CPACC
Accessibility Technology Manager
Access Center
Plaza 122
Metropolitan State University of Denver
ipriest at msudenver.edu<mailto:ipriest at msudenver.edu>
Phone: 303-615-0200
Fax: 720-778-5662
[Metropolitan State University of Denver]
This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information.  Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited.  If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20180730/6a019e26/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 14590 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20180730/6a019e26/attachment.jpg>