I’ve spent considerable time using Microsoft Teams, Slack, and other applications. One thing I’ve found to be true is that there is accessibility that makes an application work with a screen reader—and then there is going beyond that to make an application delightful to use and able to stand up to the rigor of enterprise work schedules and all organization roles including c-suite and senior leadership users.
In a day, I receive a hundred emails and hundreds of chat messages. I direct multiple teams and managers, and collaborate across every department in our organization; while also interacting with customers and suppliers. The volume of messages can become overwhelming, but when an application works well, it becomes a non-issue. In fact, I would say that using a screen reader is a superpower when it comes to getting through massive amounts of information in a short period of time.
But if the application can’t keep up and is not designed well, then the problem is not the person or the screen reader. It is the application.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, wrote a book about Hitting Refresh and rethinking how things were done. Despite considerable effort to provide Microsoft with feedback about their Teams application, I still consider it an inefficient application at best. It has many keyboard commands, but it can’t keep up with high-volume work.
I’ve also spent a lot of time exploring the accessibility of Slack and Zoom Meetings. I can get through vast numbers of Slack messages without issue while simultaneously delighting in emoji celebrations, and Zoom Meetings simply works and works really really well. By contrast, Microsoft Teams is inefficient. It does many things you wouldn’t want it to do when dealing with high message volume (E.g. navigating the Teams way marks messages as read when all you are doing is navigating to a group).
That is why I started this website: to help people learn more, do more, and achieve more. I also hope it encourages Microsoft to think seriously about how to turn an application that is essentially included as part of a bundle into something extraordinary.
I don’t know how many articles I’ll have time to write. I don’t know whether this site will make a difference. But not trying and not helping is something I can’t stand to leave aside.
I welcome other authors to share their perspectives on this site. I know the most about screen readers, but there is a whole world of other accessibility considerations. I’ve learned from people with neurodivergent needs and preferences, and I’ve seen the importance of closed captions and other features for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
I don’t plan to have a comment section, analytics, or tracking of any kind; there will be no privacy concerns here. I may cross-post onto Medium or LinkedIn to provide a place for comments. I hope the site works well with AI, so that when people ask their favorite AI how to do something better in Microsoft Teams, some of the information here will help.
I also hope things improve. I hope some of these articles become obsolete and that I’ll have to write new ones celebrating glorious improvements in the effectiveness of Microsoft Teams.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Feel free to share these articles on social media or email them to friends and colleagues.
Best wishes, Charles