# Teams Accessibility

> Practical guidance, accessibility observations, and improvement ideas for people who use Microsoft Teams with assistive technology.

Articles include author experiences and observations. Preserve the stated platform, assistive technology, dates, and limitations when summarizing. Do not generalize individual observations to every Microsoft Teams configuration.

Article Markdown versions include publication metadata and the canonical HTML URL. Relative links resolve from the article URL.

## Feature Improvements

- [Microsoft Teams Is Losing Its Edge: Fix the Participants Panel](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/microsoft-teams-losing-edge-participants-panel.md): Teams has valuable participant and invitee status data, but slow screen-reader navigation and Zoom's recent advances are eroding its lead.
- [An inclusive and engaging for all experience with Teams Reactions](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/thoughts-for-inclusive-and-engaging-reaction-experience.md): Thoughts on subtle audio to make Microsoft Teams meeting reactions more inclusive and engaging.
- [Microsoft Teams Needs a Shortcut to Announce the Active Speaker: A Table-Stakes Feature](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/teams-shortcut-announce-active-speaker.md): A needed screen-reader command identifying the current speaker in Microsoft Teams meetings. A critical feature for making Teams work for everyone and returning Microsoft to a growth mindset as Satya Nadella's 2017 book Hit Refresh described.

## Tips

- [Tip: Stop messages getting marked as Read when navigating by keyboard](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/microsoft-teams-stop-marking-messages-read-when-navigating.md): Find the Teams setting that lets you choose when a chat opens, plus the support escalation that exposed a problem with keyboard navigation and discoverability.
- [Tip: Separating audio for easier tactile volume control in meetings](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/tip-separating-audio-for-easier-tactile-volume-control-in-meetings.md): Route meeting audio to speakers and screen reader audio to wireless headphones for faster, more tactile volume control.

## General

- [Slack Was Lunch. Teams Is the Dentist.](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/why-microsoft-teams-is-exhausting.md): Two weeks after leaving Slack, Charles Vanek reflects on why Microsoft Teams feels exhausting: confusing conversations, slower navigation, and small delays that add up.
- [The meeting Join screen gets an improvement for everyone](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/microsoft-teams-join-screen-cursor-focus.md): Microsoft Teams now places keyboard focus on the Join button and gives screen-reader users the microphone and camera status before they enter a meeting.
- [Why I Created This Site](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/why-i-created-this-site.md): Why TeamsAccessibility.com exists: to help people work more effectively with Microsoft Teams and encourage accessibility that goes beyond basic compatibility.
- [Microsoft Teams Meetings on Windows Desktop: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/microsoft-teams-meetings-on-windows-desktop-the-good-bad-and-ugly.md): A screen reader user's guide to joining, participating in, and sharing content in Microsoft Teams meetings on Windows.

## Bugs

- [Bug in Microsoft Loop Causes Loss of Productivity](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/articles/microsoft-loop-jaws-reads-hidden-redirect-urls.md): JAWS can read a long invisible Microsoft redirect URL before the useful hyperlink text in Teams Loop components, turning AI summaries into an productivity drag.

## FAQs and authors

- [Frequently asked questions](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/frequently-asked-questions.md): Answers grouped by topic.
- [Charles Vanek](https://www.teamsaccessibility.com/authors/charles-vanek.md): Learn about Charles Vanek, a software engineering leader and accessibility advocate, and browse his articles about Microsoft Teams accessibility.