Zoom Accessibility Information
Zoom is a video conferencing service that integrates with Canvas. Zoom provides opportunities for virtual or online class meetings, office hours, and other types of meetings. Zoom features audio and video options, screen sharing, chat, and polling functionality, and whiteboarding capabilities.
Affected Users
Accessibility issues with Zoom will primarily affect students and instructors with low vision and/or who use a screen reader, students and instructors with impaired hearing, and students and instructors using keyboard navigation.
Known Accessibility Barriers
Barriers to People using Screenreaders and with Low Vision
Zoom does not yet support customizations of user-interface (UI) color and size. Certain indicator messages and flashing icons are also very small or covered by other menus.
Barriers to People with Impaired Hearing
While Zoom offers close-captions, it does not prompt content creators to provide captioning.
Barriers to Keyboard Support
On the Windows app, keyboard support is not available for Gallery View thumbnail re-ordering, drag-and-drop moving of the Closed Captioning window, and accessing user Profile Cards in participant list
The meeting toolbar will disappear and become unreachable if a user shares a video.
Text in the chat history list is selectable via keyboard. However, users are not afforded the ability of granular selection of text
Accommodations
Keyboard Support
Keyboard exception most likely impact meeting hosts and not participants. If the keyboard exceptions include tasks a meeting host must complete, they should contact their school or department’s IT support for troubleshooting assistance or in-meeting support.
If a participant needs to have thumbnails reordered (for example an ASL interpreter is being used and needs to be in a certain location), the host should either remove the requirement that a fixed order of thumbnails is necessary or move the thumbnails to the desired order as the host and enforce that view for participants.
If a host needs a fixed order of thumbnails, they should assign an alternate host from the meeting participants to complete this order, or request assistance from IT support within their department. When sharing a video, the person sharing should not require toolbar access for functions like chat until they stop sharing.
Hosts should not disable the download option of chat so that people needing to select sections of the chat can download the text file of chat if needed.
Low Vision and Screenreader Support
If a person using Zoom is unable to determine the error preventing buttons from being enabled, they should contact their school or department’s IT support for troubleshooting assistance.
If UI size is an issue, people using Zoom can try the magnifying features on their device to increase the size of Zoom controls. If this is not possible, a person should be made available through Accessible NU to assist with using Zoom controls.
If there is an audio description for someone who is blind on the video that cannot not be accessed through shared video, the person sharing the video should post or send a link to the video to the user if audio description is needed so that they can access it separately.
Hearing Impaired
If captions are not included or enabled, a request should be made of the Zoom host to enable captions in a meeting or add closed captions in a recording.
People with hearing impairment should use Zoom meetings and not Zoom phone.
Additional Support
If a Zoom participant does not have time to complete a task in the provided time limit, the host should re-launch the feature and extend the time if possible.
If accessibility repair is needed, the person using Zoom should contact the departmental IT and/or Accessible NU for assistance.
Additional Support
If these workarounds are not sufficient to provide access for a specific individual, accommodations may be necessary. To address accommodation needs:
• For student(s), contact AccessibleNU at accessiblenu@northwestern.edu
• For faculty, staff, or the general public, contact the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance at accommodations@northwestern.edu