Jamie Pauls
On March 17, 2020, I knew that I would not be working at the school where I do music therapy for a few weeks. I had no idea that COVID-19 would change all our lives, and that I wouldn't set foot in the school again until June, and then only for a couple weeks. I also had no way of knowing that I wouldn't be going to church or home Bible study groups for many months.
Up until the spring of last year, none of my sighted friends used the word "Zoom" when talking about attending a business meeting, and Zoom sure wasn't a verb used when talking about teleconferencing in the same way that Google is a verb that denotes internet searching. I felt a bit cocky when the connection group my wife and I were a part of started using Zoom to conduct weekly Bible studies. I had a leg up on my people. I already had a good idea how to use the program.
I didn't feel so cocky when our church's worship team decided to conduct their weekly Bible studies using Google Meet. Immediately, my blood pressure went up a little. How accessible would it be to me, a screen reader user? Not wanting to ask the team to change to Zoom on my account before at least trying Meet, I approached my first Bible study with trepidation. I was pleased to discover that, in fact, Meet was quite accessible with either JAWS or NVDA. Below, you will find a few thoughts I have gathered after using Google Meet over the course of the past year or so.
Joining a Meeting With Google Meet
Google Meet on the PC is basically a web application. Just click on a link provided by the meeting organizer, and you are taken to a page where you can join the meeting. You are able to see who is already in attendance, and participating is a simple matter of activating the Join button. Much like other teleconferencing programs, the presenter must admit you into the meeting room. Your screen reader should announce pertinent information such as the fact that your microphone and camera are enabled once you are in the meeting.
Their are a few hotkeys you can use to do things like mute or unmute your microphone and turn your camera on and off. Some actions like leaving a meeting don't have associated hotkeys, but the webpage where your meeting takes place is pretty clean, and it's not hard to find the controls you need in order to complete a task. I have not tried Google Meet on a Mac, but I can't imagine that the process would be any more difficult than on a PC. I have recently discovered that the Meet app for my iPhone is an absolute pleasure to use. The sound quality on PC and iPhone is excellent. I can't speak to video quality, but none of my sighted friends seem to complain. On the iPhone, VoiceOver announces who is speaking as different people talk in the meeting, something I rather like.
Hosting a Meeting on Google Meet
It couldn't be easier to get up and running as a meeting host with Google Meet. If you already have a Google account, and who doesn't, just sign in and you're good to go. You can schedule a meeting and add it to Google calendar, or simply create a meeting that can be started at any time. Pass the link to anyone you want to meet with, start the meeting, and wait for them to join. A sound plays and your screen reader will tell you when someone wants to join your meeting. Simply activate the Admit button and they are in. While a meeting is running, you can view meeting participants, mute their audio, and any number of other useful things.
One thing I have not been able to figure out how to do successfully is share my screen complete with audio and video. As a music therapist doing teletherapy, this is an important function of my job. For me, the Microsoft Edge browser either locked up, or content just wouldn't share. It could very well be that this is a problem on my end. I have found WebEx to also not be reliable when it comes to screen sharing. For this reason, I have switched all of my therapy sessions to Zoom.
Another thing I can't quite get the hang of is chatting with people in a Google Meet session. I started a meeting on my PC and then joined the meeting from my iPhone. I was able to send a chat with no problem, but my phone never received the chat. Perhaps if I had tried sending a message to someone else, it would have worked.
The Bottom Line
If you need a free, simple solution for getting together for a family chat or simple meeting, Google Meet should do the trick. The Windows PC web application and iPhone app work great with minimal fuss. Control D toggles your microphone on and off, and Control E does the same for your camera. Other controls that don't have hotkeys assigned to them are easy enough to find on the uncluttered screen.
If you need to share content with others, you might want to seriously think about using a program like Zoom, although others may have work-arounds for the difficulties I encountered when trying to share my screen and chat with others in a meeting. Google is committed to making its products accessible to blind and visually impaired users, so I am confident that this teleconferencing program will improve over time. I plan to keep this application around in my arsenal of useful tools for communicating with others.
One issue that I encountered that was not accessibility specific, was that in some cases I could not hear the audio of others when I joined a meeting. This most often happened if I muted my microphone in the web app before joining a meeting and when using a bluetooth headset while using the iOS app.
For more about the accessibility of the major virtual meeting platforms, this article discusses Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams from a blind person's point of view. There is a lot of great content in this article, including an extensive list of keyboard commands for all three programs.
Although there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel where this pandemic is concerned, it is probably safe to say that we have a long way to go. It is also safe to assume that we will do a lot more virtual learning and collaborating in the months and even years to come. As blind users of mainstream technology, it is necessary and even desirable that we make ourselves familiar with the same technology that our sighted counterparts are using. It is also important to let the developers of teleconferencing software know what works and what doesn't as far as access technology for the blind is concerned. They can't fix it if they don't know it's broken.
Like a lot of things, the longer you use a particular piece of technology, the easier it becomes. When I first started using WebEx, I didn't think I would ever get comfortable with it. Over time, my confidence grew and I became a more efficient WebEx user. In the case of Zoom, scripts for JAWS and add-ons for NVDA made the program even more usable than it already was. It's likely that a combination of improvements from Google, sharing of ideas among the blind community, and even screen reader configuration files will make Google Meet a go-to teleconferencing option for more blind people in the future.
What are your thoughts on teleconferencing today? Have you found the process intimidating, or has it leveled the playing field for you as a blind person? We would love to hear your thoughts. Comment on this article through the link below to share your experiences, both good and bad, with teleconferencing. We look forward to hearing from you!
This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.
Related articles:
- Popular Web Conferencing Programs Part 1: WebEx by Jamie Pauls
- Full Speed Ahead with Modern Communication: A Review of the Zoom Conferencing System by J.J. Meddaugh
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