Microsoft Teams is available on Windows, macOS, iPhone, and Android, but not on Linux. This introductory article focuses on the Windows desktop meeting experience from a screen reader user's perspective.

Joining a meeting

The easiest ways to join a meeting are through the meeting link, the Join button in the Teams calendar, the Join button in Outlook, or the meeting-start notification. After someone starts the meeting, press Ctrl+Shift+J from the notification to join. Entering a meeting ID and passcode manually is a more tedious option.

Before entering the meeting, Teams displays a join dialog. Use Tab to review the microphone and camera status and to change either setting. You can also turn off meeting audio entirely, which prevents you from hearing or speaking to other participants. This option is primarily useful when joining from a conference room where another audio source is already in use.

The bad

  • The join dialog does not provide a keyboard shortcut for the Join now button. Use Tab or Shift+Tab to find the button, then press Enter.

In the meeting

I recommend joining with the microphone and camera turned off. By default, focus lands on the Mute/Unmute button in the control bar at the top of the screen.

The good

  • Keyboard shortcuts are available for common commands: toggle mute (Ctrl+Shift+M), toggle video (Ctrl+Shift+O), and raise or lower your hand (Ctrl+Shift+K).
  • Audio and video settings are available from menus beside the microphone and video buttons. From either button, press Right Arrow once to access its settings directly.

The bad

  • Many elements can take focus when a meeting starts or while it is in progress. Do not assume that focus or keyboard shortcuts will continue to work in the same context. For example, if the AI Facilitator opens the meeting agenda and notes, it moves the text cursor into a Loop component on the right side of the screen. The mute, video, and raise-hand shortcuts no longer work from within the Loop component; press F6 to move out of it first.
  • Common features such as the Chat pane, Reactions, and People pane do not have toggle shortcuts. You can press F6 to find the control bar, use Left Arrow or Right Arrow to locate the appropriate button, and then press Enter. This sequence creates considerable cognitive overhead while you are also listening to the active speaker.

General participation

The good

  • Leaving is straightforward: press Alt+F4 to close the meeting window. Teams may ask you to confirm that you want to leave, although this confirmation can be turned off in settings.
  • Audio quality is generally good when the internet connection is reliable.
  • When several people are in a call, their voices may be positioned in stereo to correspond with the general location of their avatar or video, which adds some spatial depth.

The bad

  • There is no queue or announcement for other participants' reactions. People may be clapping or sending heart reactions without a blind participant knowing.
  • Blind participants cannot readily determine who has video turned on or off without using an AI tool to analyze the screen.

Sharing your screen

Press Ctrl+Shift+E to open the sharing dialog. From there, you can share audio, your entire screen, or an application. To select an application, activate the application list with Enter, use Up Arrow or Down Arrow to choose the application, and then confirm your selection.

When sharing begins, Teams changes to a compact control bar. Use Shift+Tab or another standard Windows command to switch to a different window. The audio, video, and sharing shortcuts work while focus is on the compact Teams controls, but they stop working after focus moves to another window.

The good

  • Sharing a screen, application, or audio can be fairly straightforward. The sharing shortcut is particularly useful in a town hall-style meeting with several presenters, where each presenter may need to begin and end a shared segment quickly.

The bad

  • When sharing begins, any open Chat and People panes are lost. This makes it more difficult for a facilitator to manage those parts of the meeting and affects all users, not only people who use assistive technology.

The central accessibility failure in the Microsoft Teams experience

Microsoft Teams does not provide a keyboard shortcut that prompts a screen reader to announce the active speaker. Teams visually highlights the active speaker's video or avatar, so the application already has the information needed to make this possible. Zoom has announced the active speaker for years, demonstrating that a more accessible experience is achievable.

This omission is not merely inconvenient. It can create legal, security, or workplace-policy concerns when a participant cannot identify who made a particular statement. In those situations, asking "Who said that?" may be impractical or inappropriate.