TC Conference Accessibility Help

This conference system is reasonably friendly for screen readers, but it works a bit differently than our previous conference system. Instead of using the tab key to access important items in the room, screen reader users will need to remember a couple hot keys.

The accessibility information is in the " help" menu. Pull down the menus and use either the left or right arrow till you locate "help". Then arrow down to reach a subdirectory called "accessibility". The first item is another sub directory on screen focus. The rest of the accessibility items are items that you can check or uncheck depending on your preferences.

They are:

1. Accessible chat
2. Say who is speaking
3. Read public chat
4. Read private chat
5. Say who enters
6. Say who leaves
7. Say when status changes

The screen focus sub directory consists of items you can click and each has a "hot key" you can use to accomplish the same result:

1. Alt-a puts the focus in the browser address bar
2. f6 puts the focus in the browser
3. f8 puts the focus in the text message entry or edit field
4. f9 puts the focus in the text message reading field
5. f7 puts the focus in the user list
6. Alt-c permits you to change colors
7. Alt-s lets you change your speaker volume
8. Alt-m lets you change your mic volume

When you pull down the file menu, you have a wide variety of choices to explore and use. The one that is most important is under "options" where you can configure which key to use as the "hot key" to let you speak using your mic. It is normally the control, but "options" will let you change that.

Yes, there is a lot here to learn and remember. Most settings you will set and forget about. Even the "hot keys" really come down to 2 major ones you need to know. You need to remember what key to let you use the mic, and you need to remember how to move your screen focus to the browser so that your screen reader will read its content whenever it changes.